High Density Lipoprotein Complexes As Delivery Vehicles for Anticancer Drugs

Materials And Methods: Recombinant high density lipoprotein (rHDL) particles were prepared with defined composition (phosphatidylcholine, apolipoprotein A-1, cholesterol and cholesteryl esters) and a molecular weight of approximately 187,000 kdaltons. Three molecules of taxol per rHDL particle were incorporated into these rHDL complexes.

Results: Cholesteryl ester and taxol (HDL core components,) were taken up efficiently by several cancer cell lines compared to transformed normal ovarian cells (HGL5) used as the control. Immunoblotting with the scavenger receptor (SR-B1) antibody revealed strong immunoreactivity of several cancer cell lines.

Conclusion: Our studies indicated that rHDL complexes can be used as efficient drug delivery vehicles due to the ability of cancer cells to acquire HDL core components. Targeting of anticancer drugs as components of the rHDL complex could result in reduction of toxic side-effects during chemotherapy.