Liposomal drug delivery systems and anticancer drugs

Cancer is a life-threatening disease contributing to ~3.4 million deaths worldwide. There are various causes of cancer, such as smoking, being overweight or obese, intake of processed meat, radiation, family history, stress, environmental factors, and chance. The first-line treatment of cancer is the surgical removal of solid tumours, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. The systemic administration of the free drug is considered to be the main clinical failure of chemotherapy in cancer treatment, as limited drug concentration reaches the tumour site. Most of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in chemotherapy are highly cytotoxic to both cancer and normal cells. Accordingly, targeting the tumour vasculatures is essential for tumour treatment. In this context, encapsulation of anti-cancer drugs within the liposomal system offers secure platforms for the targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs for the treatment of cancer. This, in turn, can be helpful for reducing the cytotoxic side effects of anti-cancer drugs on normal cells. This short-review focuses on the use of liposomes in anti-cancer drug delivery

Evaluation of novel cationic gene based liposomes with cyclodextrin prepared by thin film hydration and microfluidic systems

In gene delivery, non-viral vectors have become the preferred carrier system for DNA delivery. They can overcome major viral issues such as immunogenicity and mutagenicity. Cationic lipid-mediated gene transfer is one of the most commonly used non-viral vectors, which have been shown to be a safe and effective carrier. However, their use in gene delivery often exhibits low transfection efficiency and stability. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of novel non-viral gene delivery systems. This study has investigated the encapsulation and transfection efficiency of cationic liposomes prepared from DOTAP and carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin (CD). The encapsulation efficiency of the CD-lipoplex complexes were also studied with and without the addition of Pluronic-F127, using both microfluidic and thin film hydration methods. In vitro transfection efficiencies of these complexes were determined in COS7 and SH-SY5Y cell lines. Formulation stability was evaluated using liposomes size, zeta potential and polydispersity index. In addition, the external morphology was studied using transmission electron microcopy (TEM). Results revealed that formulations produced by microfluidic method had smaller, more uniform and homogenious size and zeta-potential as well as higher encapsulation efficiency when compared with liposomes manufactured by thin film hydration method. Overall, the results of this study show that carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin increased lipoplexes’ encapsulation efficiency using both NanoAssemblr and rotary evaporator manufacturing processes. However, this increase was reduced slightly following the addition of Pluronic-F127. The addition of carboxymethyl-β-cyclodextrin to cationic liposomes resulted in an increase in transfection efficiency in mammalian cell lines. However, this increase appeared to be cell line specific, COS7 showed higher transfection efficiency compared to SH-SY5Y

Formulation and characterisation of spray-dried o-carborane/ poly(vinylpyrrolidone) for boron neutron capture therapy of liver and lung cancer

<div>Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a non-conventional type of radio-chemotherapy that has been used to target a number of cancers, although predominantly brain tumours (gliomas). We report the co-spray-drying of <i>o</i>-carborane, as a model BNCT agent, with poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), a water-soluble polymer, to produce microparticle powders of high boron-content for BNCT treatment of liver and lung cancers.The powders have been characterised using NMR, particle sizing, electron microscopy and cytotoxicity tests. ¹H NMR indicated the high temperatures (180 °C) of the spray drying process did not degrade the PVP. Mean particle diameters (x₉₀) were in the 2–10 µm range, with finer fractions being present (x₁₀= 1–2 µm), and were therefore considered suitable size for delivery to the lungs. SEM imaging showed particles to be spherical, with dimples and cavities, caused by the spray drier nozzle characteristics, and similarly sized irregularly-shaped crystalline particles, thought to be <i>o</i>-carborane. Boron chemical mapping was attempted using EDS, although the low atomic weight of boron did not allow this to be possible. Cytotoxicity studies, using neoplastic (human </div><div>glioblastoma U-87 MG) and non-neoplastic (human fetal lung fibroblast MRC-5) cells, revealed the PVP/<i>o</i>-carborane co-spray-dried particles to be non-toxic, as expected.</div><div><br></div><div>Journal of Innovations in Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences 4(4) (2017) 9-15.</div