Antiangiogenic nanotherapy with lipase-labile Sn-2 fumagillin prodrug.

BACKGROUND: The chemical instability of antiangiogenic fumagillin, combined with its poor retention during intravascular transit, requires an innovative solution for clinical translation. We hypothesized that an Sn-2 lipase-labile fumagillin prodrug, in combination with a contact-facilitated drug delivery mechanism, could be used to address these problems. METHODS: α(v)ß(3)-targeted and nontargeted nanoparticles with and without fumagillin in the prodrug or native forms were evaluated in vitro and in vivo in the Matrigel™ (BD Biosciences, CA, USA) plug model of angiogenesis in mice. RESULTS: In vitro experiments demonstrated that the new fumagillin prodrug decreased viability at least as efficacious as the parent compound, on an equimolar basis. In the Matrigel mouse angiogenesis model, α(v)ß(3)-fumagillin prodrug decreased angiogenesis as measured by MRI (3T), while the neovasculature was unaffected with the control nanoparticles. CONCLUSION: The present approach resolved the previously intractable problems of drug instability and premature release in transit to target sites.

Synthesis and self-assembly of glycal-based bolaforms.

Glycal-based bolaforms serve as synthetically flexible components of molecular self-assembly. The compounds are prepared in good yield by a Ferrier reaction between triacetylglucal or -galactal or diacetylxylal and a long chain alpha,omega-diol, followed by deacetylation under Zemplen conditions. The reactions are stereoselective and preferentially afford the alpha-diastereomer. The bolaforms undergo self-assembly in water or water/dioxane solution to give a variety of nanostructures. In solution, bolaforms with C8 or C10 chains between glucal headgroups form nanoscale vesicles. In contrast, bolaforms with C12 chains exhibit lower solubility and a dynamic self-assembly, forming several different nanoscale structures. However, the solid-state structures of C12 bolaform isomers adopt shapes very similar to those of bolaforms possessing more extensive hydrogen-bonding networks, indicating that multiple hydrogen bonds in solution are important to formation of stable, discrete nanostructures but that only a few key intermolecular interactions between bolaform headgroups are necessary to determine the structure in the solid state. The diversity and differentiation of the functional groups present in glycal-based bolaforms suggest that they could be useful probes of the various noncovalent forces controlling the structure of new nanomaterials.