Thermal and magnetic dual-responsive liposomes with a cell-penetrating peptide-siRNA conjugate for enhanced and targeted cancer therapy.

Due to the absence of effective in vivo delivery systems, the employment of small interfering RNA (siRNA) in the clinic has been hindered. Here, we describe a novel siRNA targeting system that combines features of biological (cell-permeable peptides, CPPs) and physical (magnetic) siRNA targeting for use in magnetic hyperthermia-triggered release. A siRNA-CPPs conjugate (siRNA-CPPs) was loaded into thermal and magnetic dual-responsive liposomes (TML) (siRNA-CPPs/TML), and in vitro siRNA-CPPs thermosensitive release activity, targeted cellular uptake, gene silencing efficiency, in vivo targeted delivery and in vivo antitumor activity were determined. The results demonstrated that siRNA-CPPs/TML exhibited good physicochemical properties, effective cellular uptake, endosomal escape and a significant gene silencing efficiency in MCF-7 cells in vitro. Additionally, in the in vivo study, siRNA-CPPs/TML under an alternating current (AC) magnetic field displayed a superior in vivo targeted delivery efficacy, antitumor efficacy and gene silencing efficiency in a MCF-7 xenograft murine model. In conclusion, the application of siRNA-CPPs/TML under an AC magnetic field represents a new strategy for the selective and efficient delivery of siRNA.