Chimeric peptide supramolecular nanoparticles for plectin-1 targeted miRNA-9 delivery in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal disease with poor prognosis. Insights into the roles of MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in diseases, particularly in cancer, have made miRNAs attractive tools and targets for novel therapeutic approaches. Here, we employed a novel chimeric peptide supramolecular nanoparticle delivery system for plectin-1 (PL-1)-targeted PDAC-specific miR-9 delivery and in pancreatic cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model. RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were conducted to detect the expression pattern of eIF5A2. mRFP-GFP-LC3 fluorescence microscopy and Western blot were carried out to determine autophagy. Luciferase reporter assays were performed to elucidate the regulatory role of miR-9/eIF5A2 axis. PL-1/miR-9 nanocomplexes dramatically improve the anticancer effect of doxorubicin through downregulating eIF5A2 expression to inhibit autophagy and induce apoptosis in PDAC therapy . Mechanistically, miR-9 directly targets the transcript by binding to its 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) to reduce the expression levels and the secreted protein of eIF5A2 in PDAC cells. PL-1/miR-9 nanoparticles can be used as a novel promising anti-cancer strategy with tumor targeting and miR-9/eIF5A2 may serve as a new potential therapeutic target for future synergic therapy against human PDAC.