Fig. 5

Anti-tumor effects of NCL-recognizing F3 peptide-targeted, doxorubicin (DXR)-loaded, pH-sensitive pegylated liposomes, in a pseudo-metastatic and in a orthotopic murine model of neuroblastoma. A Survival in the pseudo-metastatic model. Mice injected in the tail vein with HTLA-230 NB cells were treated with 3.5 mg/kg of not targeted (NT-DXR) or F3 targeted liposomes (T-DXR), twice a week, for four weeks. Control mice (CTR) received HEPES-buffered saline. Statistics: NT-DXR vs CTR, p = 0.0323; T-DXR vs CTR, p = 0.0003; T-DXR vs NT-DXR, p = 0.0189. B Tumor growth delay and (C) survival in the orthotopic model. Mice, injected in the adrenal gland with 1 × 10⁶ luciferase-transfected IMR-32 (IMR-32-luc) NB cells, were treated for imaging as above, and with 3.5 mg/kg of free-DXR, NT-DXR or T-DXR, twice a week, for four weeks, for survival experiments. In (B) tumor growth of IMR-32-Luc was monitored by BLI. Photon counts in the tumor Region of Interest (ROI) are reported at pre-treatment and 24 h post the end of treatment. Results on dot-plots are presented ± SD. *, p < 0.05 and **, p < 0.01: NT-DXR and T-DXR vs CTR, respectively. In (C) NT-DXR vs CTR and vs free-DXR, p = 0.0001; T-DXR vs CTR and vs free-DXR, p < 0.0001; T-DXR vs NT-DXR, p = 0.0015