Development of peptide-18-targeted nanoliposome formulations with an alternative stealth coating copolymer for targeting breast cancer AU565 cell line

The incidence of breast cancer has increased considerably in recent years. Many efforts have been made to develop various nano-drug delivery systems with specific properties to achieve effective and specific therapy. The stealthy nanoliposomes are the most successful and promising candidates for providing targeted tumor therapy. In this paper, a synthesized PEtOx-DOPE (poly(2-Ethyl 2-Oxazoline)-Dioleoyl Phosphatidylethanolamine) copolymer was equipped with a breast cancer-recognizing tumor-homing peptide to achieve cell-specific delivery. The prepared liposomes provided stability for 6 months, and their hydrodynamic diameters are around 100 nm. Targeted liposomes remarkably exhibited 8 times higher cellular internalization in comparison with the nontargeted cells in flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Furthermore, liposome constructs displayed slight toxicity on HaCaT cells when treated with high doses. Hence, Peptide 18-conjugated PEtOx-DOPE liposome systems can serve as favorable candidates in breast cancer-targeted therapy.