Engineering hairy cellulose nanocrystals for chemotherapy drug capture

Sarah A E Young; Joy Muthami; Mica Pitcher; Petar Antovski; Patricia Wamea; Robert Denis Murphy; Reihaneh Haghniaz; Andrew Schmidt; Samuel Clark; Ali Khademhosseini; Amir Sheikhi

doi:10.1016/j.mtchem.2021.100711

Engineering hairy cellulose nanocrystals for chemotherapy drug capture

Mater Today Chem. 2022 Mar:23:100711. doi: 10.1016/j.mtchem.2021.100711. Epub 2021 Dec 30.

Authors

Sarah A E Young^{1

2

3}, Joy Muthami⁴, Mica Pitcher^{4

5}, Petar Antovski^{1

2

3}, Patricia Wamea⁴, Robert Denis Murphy^{1

2

3}, Reihaneh Haghniaz^{1

2

3

6}, Andrew Schmidt^{1

2

3}, Samuel Clark^{1

2

3}, Ali Khademhosseini^{1

2

3

7

8

9}, Amir Sheikhi^{1

2

3

4

10}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 410 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
² Center for Minimally Invasive Therapeutics (C-MIT), University of California, Los Angeles, 570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
³ California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), University of California, Los Angeles, 570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁶ Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA.
⁷ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Centre, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA.
⁸ Department of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 5531 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

Abstract

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, affecting millions of people every year. While chemotherapy remains one of the most common cancer treatments in the world, the severe side effects of chemotherapy drugs impose serious concerns to cancer patients. In many cases, the chemotherapy can be localized to maximize the drug effects; however, the drug systemic circulation induces undesirable side effects. Here, we have developed a highly efficient cellulose-based nanoadsorbent that can capture more than 6000 mg of doxorubicin (DOX), one of the most widely used chemotherapy drugs, per gram of the adsorbent at physiological conditions. Such drug capture capacity is more than 3200% higher than other nanoadsorbents, such as DNA-based platforms. We show how anionic hairy cellulose nanocrystals, also known as electrosterically stabilized nanocrystalline cellulose (ENCC), bind to positively charged drugs in human serum and capture DOX immediately without imposing any cytotoxicity and hemolytic effects. We elucidate how ENCC provides a remarkable platform for biodetoxification at varying pH, ionic strength, ion type, and protein concentration. The outcome of this research may pave the way for developing the next generation in vitro and in vivo drug capture additives and devices.

Keywords: Cellulose nanocrystal; bioadsorbent; blood purification; chemotherapy; doxorubicin; drug capture; nanocellulose.

Grants and funding

R01 EB024403/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/United States