Cationic liposomes co-deliver chemotherapeutics and siRNA for the treatment of breast cancer

In order to improve the targeting efficiency and reduce anti-breast cancer therapeutic side effects, paclitaxel (PTX), crizotinib (CRI), and Bcl-xL siRNA were co-loaded in cationic liposomes (CTL), which exhibited a substantial enhanced permeability and retention effect (EPR effect) in breast cancer. CTL containing crizotinib and paclitaxel (CRI-PTX-CTL) had particle sizes of (138.63 ± 1.53) nm and zeta potentials of (50.90 ± 0.30) mV, respectively. It was spherical and uniformly dispersed under TEM. The in vitro release of CRI-PTX-CTL showed that the cumulative release rates of CRI and PTX within 12 h were 64.37% and 54.71%, and released from liposomes at the same time. At the cellular level, CRI and PTX were discovered to have synergistic effects. Cell uptake experiments demonstrated that CRI, PTX, and siRNA contained in CTL can be effectively taken up by MCF-7 cells. It was further proved that CTL-siRNA could effectively inhibit the expression of Bcl-xL in cells. CRI, PTX and Bcl-xL siRNA delivered by CTL showed enhanced cytotoxicity during in vitro experiments. Therefore, this study proved that the CRI-PTX-CTL-siRNA was a very promising delivery system for the treatment of breast cancer.