Nanocarrier has improved the drug action in pancreatic cancer

Hi all. As I told in my previous blog, this is the second post regarding my work that recently published. Pancreatic cancer is the most aggressive of all cancers. The five year survival rate of a patient is less than 6 %. Out of 100 persons diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 85 persons are mortal. For treating of such an aggressive disease "Gemcitabine" is recommended as the standard chemotherapy with 1000 mg/meter square. The poor bio-availability of the drug inside tumor environment and rapid efflux mechanisms of pancreatic cancer cells are the prime reasons for the pancreatic cancer resistance towards gemcitabine. To over come this drawback, a nanocarrier that is biocompatible and biodegradable with sustained drug release shall be effective in treating pancreatic cancer.

Cartoon depicting the Gemcitabine (Green) loaded PLGA (grey) nanospheres

Our work, published in Materials Science and Engineering: Chemistry, discussed about gemcitabine loaded poly(Lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanospheres as an effective treatment modality for pancreatic cancer. We have encapsulated the drug into PLGA nanospheres by water-oil-water emulsion method and achieved 15 % of encapsulation which is higher compared to existing literature, as it is tough to load a hydrophilic drug into a hydrophobic polymer. The gemcitabine was proved in the literature to be present in the polymer chain foldings and crevices formed by polymer chains inside the PLGA nanospheres. The drug loaded gemcitabine PLGA nanospheres provided a sustained drug release for 41 days. The nanospheres showed the bulk erosion degradation which enhances the release of drug in a sustained manner. The nanospheres were taken into cells by non-energy dependent mechanism. The specific targeting using an antibody will facilitate specific cancer cell attack by the nanocarrier.

Overall the biodegradable and biocompatible PLGA with gemcitabine loaded inside shall be a promising nanocarrier for pancreatic cancer treatment.

Reference

L.R.Jaidev, Uma Maheswari Krishnan, Swaminathan Sethuraman, (2015)  Gemcitabine loaded biodegradable PLGA nanospheres for in vitro pancreatic cancer therapy Material Science and Engineering:C , 47, 40–47.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928493114007280