Efficient Targeting Drug Delivery System for Lewis Lung Carcinoma, Leading to Histomorphological Abnormalities Restoration, Physiological and Psychological Statuses Improvement, and Metastasis Inhibition

Lung cancer is a kind of malignant tumor with high morbidity and metastasis tendency. Gambogic acid (GA) has demonstrated significant antitumor activity in vitro, but its poor water-solubility and adverse effects restrict its application in vivo and in clinic. In this study, a passive-targeting GA delivery system was prepared for orthotopic Lewis lung carcinoma model mice. Besides the ∼7 μm size distribution, slow and steady in vitro drug release in a week, high targeting effect to lung, effective restoration of histomorphological abnormalities in lung, maintaining on bodyweight, and prolongation on survival time, excellent improvements of the GA-loaded particles on physiological and psychological statuses and obvious inhibition on tumor metastasis to liver have also been observed, through the measurements of Porsolt forced swim, hypoxic tolerance time, ultrastructure of pulmonary capillary, pulmonary vascular permeability, and hepatic histological change. These results suggest that this GA-loaded particle may be an ideal approach to achieve satisfactory therapeutic function on lung cancer.