Charge Conversion Polymer–Liposome Complexes to Overcome the Limitations of Cationic Liposomes in Mitochondrial-Targeting Drug Delivery

Mitochondrial-targeting therapy is considered an important strategy for cancer treatment. (3-Carboxypropyl) triphenyl phosphonium (CTPP) is one of the candidate molecules that can drive drugs or nanomedicines to target mitochondria via electrostatic interactions. However, the mitochondrial-targeting effectiveness of CTPP is low. Therefore, pH-sensitive polymer–liposome complexes with charge-conversion copolymers and CTPP-containing cationic liposomes were de-signed for efficiently delivering an anti-cancer agent, ceramide, into cancer cellular mitochondria. The charge-conversion copolymers, methoxypoly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(methacrylic acid-g-histidine), were anionic and helped in absorbing and shielding the positive charges of cationic liposomes at pH 7.4. In contrast, charge-conversion copolymers became neutral in order to depart from cationic liposomes and induced endosomal escape for releasing cationic liposomes into cytosol at acidic endosomes. The experimental results reveal that these pH-sensitive polymer–liposome complexes could rapidly escape from MCF-7 cell endosomes and target MCF-7 mitochondria within 3 h, thereby leading to the generation of reactive oxygen species and cell apoptosis. These findings provide a promising solution for cationic liposomes in cancer mitochondrial-targeting drug delivery.