Huang C, Gudlur S, Maricar S, Chen Z, Shebanova A, Sun Y, Saliba V, Xu C, Zou Y, Zhang J, Boujday S, Miserez A (2025) Peptide coacervates as intracellular delivery vehicles for synergistic cancer photothermal- and chemo-therapies. APL Bioeng 9(3):036101. doi: 10.1063/5.0279643 PMID: 40642324
Objective: To present a solution for intracellular delivery of large molecules using GW26 coacervate microdroplets (CMs), a peptide-based system, as a dual-function platform that not only facilitates the controlled release of therapeutic cargos but also enhances cancer cell death through photothermal therapy (PTT).
Summary: GW26 CMs exhibit high recruiting efficiency of photothermal (PT) materials—chlorin e6 (Ce6) and gold nanorods—with over 80% efficiency. These CMs demonstrate high cellular uptake in tumor cells, with 98% of CT26 colon carcinoma cells successfully internalizing Ce6-loaded CMs. The co-recruitment of the cytotoxic protein saporin enables synergistic PT and chemotherapeutic cancer treatments among all these cells, further enhancing the therapeutic effect, in some cases exhibiting a near-complete loss in cell viability. This approach combines efficient recruitment, controlled cargo release, and enhanced therapeutic efficacy, positioning GW26 CMs as a promising platform for multimodal cancer therapies.
Usage: Characterization of co-delivery of PT materials and saporin (4.5 ul) and their cell cytotoxicity in vitro.
Related Products: Saporin (Cat. #PR-01)