Abstract
Antioxidants are known to minimize oxidative stress by interacting with free radicals produced as a result of cell aerobic reactions. Oxidative stress has long been linked to many diseases, especially tumours. Therefore, antioxidants play a crucial role in the prevention or management of free radical-related diseases. However, most of these antioxidants have anticancer effects only if taken in large doses. Others show inadequate bioavailability due to their instability in the blood or having a hydrophilic nature that limits their permeation through the cell membrane. Therefore, entrapping antioxidants in liposomes may overcome these drawbacks as liposomes have the capability to accommodate both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds with a considerable stability. Additionally, liposomes have the capability to accumulate at the cancer tissue passively, due to their small sizes, with enhanced drug delivery. Additionally, liposomes can be engineered with targeting moieties to increase the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to specific tumour cells with decreased accumulation in healthy tissues. Therefore, combined use of liposomes and antioxidants, with or without chemotherapeutic agents, is an attractive strategy to combat varies tumours. This mini review focuses on the liposomal delivery of selected antioxidants, namely ascorbic acid (AA) and alpha-lipoic acid (ALA). The contribution of these nanocarriers in enhancing the antioxidant effect of AA and ALA and consequently their anticancer potentials will be demonstrated.
Highlights
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are normal products of the cell aerobic metabolic reaction.They contain oxygen in the form of peroxides and superoxide hydroxyl radicals, singlet oxygen or hydrogen peroxide
alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) increased the caspase protein family but it down regulated the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1, Bcl-xL and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition proteins in breast cancer cells [46,68,69]. Another proposed mechanism of apoptosis and cell death induced by ALA is its remarkable antioxidant effect, accompanied with the ROS scavenging effect, observed in breast cancer cell lines [17,65]
The results indicated that liposomal at a much lower dose
Summary
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are normal products of the cell aerobic metabolic reaction. Administration of antioxidant supplements is recommended to reduce oxidative damage to the human body Antioxidants generally exert their effects mainly by either preventing the production of ROS or scavenging the formed ROS. Researchers have been focusing on producing some promising cytotoxic and anticancer drugs originating from natural compounds such as alpha lipoic acid, ascorbic acid, curcumin and many other compounds They were mainly focused on developing some novel therapeutic strategies as alternative drugs to conventional chemotherapy, to reduce or eliminate the side effects of the current chemotherapy or to potentiate a synergetic effect with chemotherapeutics. This review will focus mainly on the liposomal delivery of two of the most widely investigated antioxidants, ascorbic acid an alpha lipoic acid, for which there is sparse publication
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