Erythrocyte membrane-camouflaged gefitinib/albumin nanoparticles for tumor imaging and targeted therapy against lung cancer

Conventional chemotherapeutic drugs may cause serious side effects such as hepatotoxicity and renal toxicity due to lack of targeting, which affects therapy outcome and the prognosis of patients. Therefore, biomimetic nanoparticles with long blood circulation and active targeting have attracted increasing attention. In this work, we fabricated a biomimetic R-RBC@GEF-NPs nano-system by encapsulating gefitinib-loaded albumin nanoparticles (GEF-NPs) inside cRGD-modified red blood cell (RBC) membranes. The complete RBC membrane structure and membrane proteins enabled the NPs to escape phagocytosis by macrophages. In addition, the cRGD moiety significantly improved tumor cell targeting and uptake. R-RBC@GEF-NPs inhibited the growth of A549 cells in vitro in a dose- and time-dependent manner by inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. Likewise, the R-RBC@GEF-NPs also decreased tumor weight and volume in the mice injected with A549 cells and prolonged survival time. In addition, the 99Tc-labeled R-RBC@GEF-NPs selectively accumulated in the tumor tissues in vivo, and enabled real time tumor imaging. Finally, blood and histological analyses showed that R-RBC@GEF-NPs did not cause any obvious systemic toxicity. Taken together, the biomimetic R-RBC@GEF-NPs is a promising therapeutic formulation for the treatment of lung cancer.