Abstract
Porous silica xerogel materials have been developed to use as drug-release agents to be implanted directly in or near cancerous tissues. In order to test the capacity of the materials to absorb and then to release medicinal substances, a battery of examinations (UV and visible micro-Raman, porosity measurements, UV-visible absorption spectra) have been made using test drug molecules (clotrimazole, primaquine diphosphate and the anti-cancer agent vinblastine sulphate). Results show that the molecules can be post-doped into the gels and the Raman data provide indications of the best conditions for detecting the substances absorbed in the gels. Spectroscopic results show that the drug molecules are released by the xerogel over a period of 10 days. These results are promising for the development of these materials as drug-release agents.
Highlights
The most common combinational strategies for effective cancer treatment generally involve the combination of multiple chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapy with radiotherapy, etc. [1,2]
In order to circumvent these problems, we propose an approach previously unreported, that of post-doping biocompatible silica gels [10] with the adequate chemotherapy agent
The present work shows that is sol-gel processing a practical technique for the fabrication of carrier substrates, but that post-doping procedures are adaptable for the conception of loaded drug delivery materials
Summary
The most common combinational strategies for effective cancer treatment generally involve the combination of multiple chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapy with radiotherapy, etc. [1,2]. In order to improve overall survival and quality of life, it is desired to increase the bioavailability of drugs to the disease sites and to contain the delivery to the cancerous tissues Existing systems for this approach rely either on 1systemic delivery (polymer nanoparticle systems, for example, which are administered intravenously but which have difficulty being well localized because of sequestration by the reticulendothelial system [2,3]) or 2controlled release drug delivery depot systems for implantation intra-tumorally or adjacent to cancerous tissue [3]. We have begun tests first to determine the capacity of the gels to absorb the molecular agents and in a second step, to test the ability of the gels to release their absorbed molecular agents to the environment
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