Drug discovery and formulation development for acute pancreatitis

Abstract

Acute pancreatitis is a sudden inflammation and only last for a short time, but might lead to a life-threatening emergency. Traditional drug therapy is an essential supportive method for acute pancreatitis treatment, yet, failed to achieve satisfactory therapeutic outcomes. To date, it is still challenging to develop therapeutic medicine to redress the intricate microenvironment promptly in the inflamed pancreas, and more importantly, avoid multi-organ failure. The understanding of the acute pancreatitis, including the causes, mechanism, and severity judgment, could help the scientists bring up more effective intervention and treatment strategies. New formulation approaches have been investigated to precisely deliver therapeutics to inflammatory lesions in the pancreas, and some even could directly attenuate the pancreatic damages. In this review, we will briefly introduce the involved pathogenesis and underlying mechanisms of acute pancreatitis, as well as the traditional Chinese medicine and the new drug option. Most of all, we will summarize the drug delivery strategies to reduce inflammation and potentially prevent the further development of pancreatitis, with an emphasis on the bifunctional nanoparticles that act as both drug delivery carriers and therapeutics.

Transcriptomics and Network Pharmacology Reveal the Protective Effect of Chaiqin Chengqi Decoction on Obesity-Related Alcohol-Induced Acute Pancreatitis via Oxidative Stress and PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway

“…Given that oxidative stress is implicated in AP ( Tsai et al, 1998 ; Leung and Chan, 2009 ; Booth et al, 2011 ), antioxidant therapy can be a potential direction to explore further in AP treatment ( Esrefoglu, 2012 ; Armstrong et al, 2013 ; Jiang et al, 2020 ). Nrf2/HO-1 pathway is the master regulator of cellular antioxidant responses ( Kensler et al, 2007 ; Ma, 2013 ).…”

Analysis of the effect of a root cause analysis in elderly patients with acute pancreatitis: a randomized trial

“…First, the implementation of a reasonable scheduling system enabled the interveners to observed dynamic changes in patients' conditions in real time, and the interveners provided different preventive interventions at different times. Second, the RCA effectively prevented adverse nursing events from occurring, and enhanced nursing staff's awareness of prevention (18,19). Third, the intervention model of RCA emphasized cooperation between medical staff, which enabled them to find and address changes in patients' illness in time.…”

Phytochemicals with protective effects against acute pancreatitis: a review of recent literature

“…Complex intra-acinar events, including zymogen activation, autophagy, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic stress, have been reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of AP (Jiang et al. 2020 ). In addition, the development of AP is partly attributed to the inflammatory response which involves recruitment of immune cells, activation of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) and release of various inflammatory cytokines and chemokines.…”