Chemotherapy is one of the most frequently employed and reliable treatment options for the management of a variety of cancers. Taxanes (paclitaxel, docetaxel and cabazitaxel) are frequently prescribed to treat breast cancer, hormone refractory prostate cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and ovarian cancer. Most of the commercial products of taxanes are available as injectables, which are not patient compliant and are associated with frequent side effects like ototoxicity, baldness and neurotoxicity. Most of these concerns are ascribable to the presence of toxic solvents in these commercial formulations, which are used to solubilize these drug(s). However, there have been several attempts to develop toxic solvent free taxane formulations, especially employing novel drug delivery systems (NDDS). These systems have been reported to result in the advancement of anticancer activity, therapeutic index, stability, biocompatibility, tissue or organ targeting, encapsulation capacity, tissue permeability, oral bioavailability, reduced toxicity and reduced incidences of abnormal reactions, sustained and controlled release in comparison to the conventional solvent-based formulations. The review is an attempt to analyze the potential of NDDS-mediated taxane delivery for safer and effective cancer chemotherapy.
Despite the fact that protein and peptide therapeutics are widely employed in the treatment of various
diseases, their delivery is posing an unembellished challenge to the scientists. It was discovered that delivery of
these therapeutic systems through oral route is easy with high patient compliance. However, proteolytic degradation
and absorption through the mucosal epithelium are the barriers in this route. These issues can be minimized
by the use of enzyme inhibitors, absorption enhancers, different carrier systems or either by direct modification.
In the process of investigation, it was found that transdermal route is not posing any challenges of enzymatic
degradation, but, still absorption is the limitation as the outer layer of skin acts as a barrier. To suppress the effect
of the barrier and increase the rate of the absorption, various advanced technologies were developed, namely,
microneedle technology, iontophoresis, electroporation, sonophoresis and biochemical enhancement. Indeed,
even these molecules are targeted to the cells with the use of cell-penetrating peptides. In this review, delivery of
the peptide and protein therapeutics using oral, transdermal and other routes is discussed in detail.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.