Drug Delivery Systems in Cancer Therapy

Chapter 20 - Drug delivery systems in cancer therapy

Concepts and System Design for the Rate-Controlled Drug Delivery Fundamentals of Rate-Controlled Drug Delivery Oral Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Mucosal Drug Delivery: Potential Routes for Noninvasive Systemic Administration Nasal Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Ocular Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Transdermal Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Parenteral Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Vaginal Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Intrauterine Drug Delivery and Delivery Systems Systemic Delivery of Peptide-Based Pharmaceuticals Regulatory Considerations in Controlled Drug Delivery

Improving the selective delivery and uptake efficiency of chemotherapeutic drugs remains a challenge for cancer-targeted therapy. In this work, a DNA tetrahedron is constructed as a targeted drug delivery system for efficient delivery of doxorubicin (Dox) into cancer cells. The DNA tetrahedron is composed of a tetrahedral DNA nanostructure (TDN) with two strands of AS1411 aptamer as recognition elements which can target the nucleolin protein on the cell membrane of cancer cells. The prepared DNA tetrahedron has a high drug-loading capacity and demonstrates pH-responsive Dox release properties. This enables efficient delivery of Dox into targeted cancer cells while reducing side effects on nontarget cells. The proposed drug delivery system exhibits significant therapeutic efficacy in vitro compared to free Dox. Accordingly, this work provides a good paradigm for developing a targeted drug delivery system for cancer therapy based on DNA tetrahedrons.

Introduction/BackgroundMajor cause of failure in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer is chemoresistance. Gold nanoparticles(AuNPs) are promising drug delivery systems to overcome chemoresistance. Doxorubicin(DOX) is one of the representative cancer...

AS1411 derivatives as carriers of G-quadruplex ligands for cervical cancer cells

Progress in molecular pharmacology and a better comprehension of the mechanism of various diseases have necessitated the precise targeting of the cells responsible for initiating and advancing these diseases. This is particularly applicable to the majority of life-threatening illnesses that necessitate treatment medicines with multiple adverse effects. Therefore, precise tissue targeting is necessary to minimize systemic exposure. Modern drug delivery systems (DDS) are developed utilizing cutting-edge technology to expedite the administration of drugs across the body to a particular target area, optimizing the effectiveness of the treatment and reducing the buildup of drugs in unintended areas of the body. Consequently, they significantly impact the management and treatment of diseases. Modern drug delivery systems (DDS) provide significant advantages over traditional methods. These include improved performance, automation, precision, and efficacy. They consist of nanomaterials or miniaturized devices that comprise multifunctional components. These components are biocompatible, biodegradable, and possess high viscoelasticity, resulting in a longer circulating half-life. This article thoroughly examines the history and technological progress of medication delivery systems. The text provides an update on the latest advancements in drug delivery systems, including their therapeutic applications used in Cancer, their present obstacles, and potential future improvements for enhanced performance and utilization.

Advanced drug delivery systems for therapeutic applications.

Chapter 4 - Emerging need of advanced drug delivery systems in cancer

Simple SummaryApplication of drug delivery systems (DDS) in oncology may increase the effectiveness of cancer treatment and reduce the associated adverse side effects. Although various biomaterials can be considered for the development of DDS, the materials of natural origin offer great biocompatibility and degradability. Silk is a natural biomaterial with exceptional properties, and one of them is the possibility to form diverse morphological structures. Scaffolds, films, hydrogels, fibers, foams spheres, capsules, microneedles, among others, can be used for local and systemic drug delivery. In this review, we described the various silk-based DDS for potential application in oncology. However, the unique silk properties combined with the possibility of their further modifications and blending open the gate to numerous potential biomedical applications, not only in the oncology field.For years, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy have been the gold standards to treat cancer, although continuing research has sought a more effective approach. While advances can be seen in the development of anticancer drugs, the tools that can improve their delivery remain a challenge. As anticancer drugs can affect the entire body, the control of their distribution is desirable to prevent systemic toxicity. The application of a suitable drug delivery platform may resolve this problem. Among other materials, silks offer many advantageous properties, including biodegradability, biocompatibility, and the possibility of obtaining a variety of morphological structures. These characteristics allow the exploration of silk for biomedical applications and as a platform for drug delivery. We have reviewed silk structures that can be used for local and systemic drug delivery for use in cancer therapy. After a short description of the most studied silks, we discuss the advantages of using silk for drug delivery. The tables summarize the descriptions of silk structures for the local and systemic transport of anticancer drugs. The most popular techniques for silk particle preparation are presented. Further prospects for using silk as a drug carrier are considered. The application of various silk biomaterials can improve cancer treatment by the controllable delivery of chemotherapeutics, immunotherapeutics, photosensitizers, hormones, nucleotherapeutics, targeted therapeutics (e.g., kinase inhibitors), and inorganic nanoparticles, among others.

Despite incredible innovation in the current medical world, cancer remains a lethal disease struggling to cure and becomes a prime reason for deaths worldwide. In recent years, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are the major treatment modalities targeted to eradicate the various types of cancers. Conventional cancer treatments effectively destroy cancer cells, but they are also harmful to the normal healthy cells and tissues. A variety of nanomaterials recently appear as promising tools for cancer treatment due to the unique mechanism of passive and active tumor-targeted drug delivery. Various types of nanomaterials-based drug delivery platforms such as organic and inorganic nanomaterials have been significantly investigated for cancer treatment because they can load and carry anticancer drugs and accumulate drugs in the tumor site via passive or active targeting, thereby specifically carrying chemotherapeutic drugs to the preferred tumor sites. These functionalized nanomaterials will prominently enhance the chemotherapeutic drugs’ therapeutic efficacy while decreasing nonspecific adverse effects in cancer treatment. Additionally, remarkable efforts have been recently committed to developing targeted and controlled drug delivery systems from a variety of nanomaterials for cancer treatment, which can deliver drugs with a controlled manner to target tumor site and concurrently monitor therapeutic response by visualizing cancer cells. This chapter aims to emphasize the distinguished advantage of nanomaterials-based drug delivery systems and the mechanism of action underlying their selective targeted drug delivery effects and to introduce successful recent nanomaterials and their drug delivery systems for cancer treatment.KeywordsNanomaterialsDrug delivery systemCancer treatmentDiagnosis

BackgroundPolymeric drug delivery systems have been achieved great development in the last two decades. Polymeric drug delivery has defined as a formulation or a device that enables the introduction of a therapeutic substance into the body. Biodegradable and bio-reducible polymers make the magic possible choice for lot of new drug delivery systems. The future prospects of the research for practical applications has required for the development in the field.Main bodyNatural polymers such as arginine, chitosan, dextrin, polysaccharides, poly (glycolic acid), poly (lactic acid), and hyaluronic acid have been treated for polymeric drug delivery systems. Synthetic polymers such as poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)s, poly(ethylenimine)s, dendritic polymers, biodegradable and bio-absorbable polymers have been also discussed for polymeric drug delivery. Targeting polymeric drug delivery, biomimetic and bio-related polymeric systems, and drug-free macromolecular therapeutics have also treated for polymeric drug delivery. In polymeric gene delivery systems, virial vectors and non-virial vectors for gene delivery have briefly analyzed. The systems of non-virial vectors for gene delivery are polyethylenimine derivatives, polyethylenimine copolymers, and polyethylenimine conjugated bio-reducible polymers, and the systems of virial vectors are DNA conjugates and RNA conjugates for gene delivery.ConclusionThe development of polymeric drug delivery systems that have based on natural and synthetic polymers are rapidly emerging to pharmaceutical fields. The fruitful progresses have made in the application of biocompatible and bio-related copolymers and dendrimers to cancer treatment, including their use as delivery systems for potent anticancer drugs. Combining perspectives from the synthetic and biological fields will provide a new paradigm for the design of polymeric drug and gene delivery systems.

Chapter 15 - Nanotechnology-based cancer drug delivery

Simulation-based approaches for drug delivery systems: Navigating advancements, opportunities, and challenges

Recent advances in targeted cancer therapy hold great promise for both research and clinical applications and push the boundaries in finding new treatments for various currently incurable cancers. However, these therapies require specific cell-targeting mechanisms for the efficient delivery of drug cargo across the cell membrane to reach intracellular targets and avoid diffusion to unwanted tissues. Traditional drug delivery systems suffer from a limited ability to travel across the barriers posed by cell membranes and, therefore, there is a need for high doses, which are associated with adverse reactions and safety concerns. Bacterial toxins have evolved naturally to specifically target cell subtypes via their receptor binding module, penetrating the cell membrane efficiently through the membrane translocation process and then successfully delivering the toxic cargo into the host cytosol. They have, thus, been harnessed for the delivery of various drugs. In this review, we focus on bacterial toxin translocation mechanisms and recent progress in the targeted delivery systems of cancer therapy drugs that have been inspired by the receptor binding and membrane translocation processes of the anthrax toxin protective antigen, diphtheria toxin, and Pseudomonas exotoxin A. We also discuss the challenges and limitations of these studies that should be addressed before bacterial toxin-based drug delivery systems can become a viable new generation of drug delivery approaches in clinical translation.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Natural pharmaceutical excipients have been applied extensively in the past decades owing to their safety and biocompatibility. Zein, a natural protein of plant origin offers great benefit over other synthetic polymers used in controlled drug and biomedical delivery systems. It was used in a variety of medical fields including pharmaceutical and biomedical drug targeting, vaccine, tissue engineering, and gene delivery. Being biodegradable and biocompatible, the current review focuses on the history and the medical application of zein as an attractive still promising biopolymer.Areas covered: The current review gives a broadscope on zein as a still promising protein excipient in different fields. Zein- based drug and biomedical delivery systems are discussed with special focus on current and potential application in controlled drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering.Expert opinion: Zein as a protein of natural origin can still be considered a promising polymer in the field of drug delivery systems as well as in tissue engineering. Although different researchers spotted light on zein application in different industrial fields extensively, the feasibility of its use in the field of drug delivery replenished by investigators in recent years has not yet been fully approached.