Nanoscale Drug Delivery Systems: A Current Review on the Promising Paclitaxel Formulations for Future Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Paclitaxel (PTX) is usual for the treatment of a variety of malignancies, however, its applications are greatly limited due to its poor water solubility. Over the past years, there has been a considerable research interest in the area of nanoscale drug delivery systems (DDSs) as carrier for PTX due to their solubilization, safety, targeting and controlled release. There are many di®erent types and shapes of nanoscale DDSs that have been prepared to deliver PTX, including nanoliposome, lipid nanoemulsion, nanosuspension, nanocapsule, nano¯ber, nanotube, nanopolymersome, micelle and nanoparticle (NP). Nanascale DDSs can be based on lipids, proteins, polysaccharides, polymers or other materials. The recent strategic developments of PTX formulation have been discussed with emphasis on lipid-, polymer-and protein-based nanoscale DDSs. Here we focus on the comparative analysis of the preparation, morphology, solubilization, targeting, penetrability, controllability and e±cacy pro¯le of various PTX-loaded nanoscale DDSs, which were reported in the di®erent researches. Meanwhile the advantages and disadvantages are also discussed for each type of DDS. Furthermore, the current review embodies an in-depth discussion of human serum albumin (HSA) NP formulation, which showed signi¯cantly great e±cacy and low toxicity. All the information obtained in this review might shed light on designing new and better nanoscale PTX formulations for potential anticancer applications in the clinic.

A co-delivery system based on a reduction-sensitive polymeric prodrug capable of loading hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs for combination chemotherapy

“…27 The PTX-conjugated polymeric prodrug has also been a research hotspot to improve the solubility of PTX against cancer cells. 31 For example, hydrophilic polymers such as hyaluronic acid, [32][33][34] poly(ethylene glycol), 35 poly(N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-methacrylamide), 36 and sugar derivatives 37,38 have been designed as backbones of polymeric prodrugs to protect PTX from degradation by plasmin and improve the solubility of PTX. Chen and coworkers employed a PTX-grafted mPEG-b-PLG prodrug nanocarrier for DOX loading to enhance the chemotherapy efficacy for A549 and MCF-7 cells.…”

Cefdinir Inclusion in Mesoporous Silica as Effective Dissolution Enhancer with Improved Physical Stability

“…Similarly, although wetting the surface of the silica by the solvent is necessary for adsorption, the very strong interaction between the solvent and silica will also compete with the adsorption of the active substance. The high loading ratio obtained with n-hexane can be explained as the less polar solvent and therefore will not compete with highly hydrophobic materials such as cefdinir for adsorbing it on the silica surface, which led to a significant increase in the loading ratio [48].…”

Polymeric Nanofibers for Drug Delivery Applications: A Recent Review

“…Due to their composition, nanofibers are generally classified into three types: polymeric nanofibers, inorganic nanofibers, and organic/inorganic composite nanofibers, among which polymer nanofibers are often used as carriers and widely used in drug delivery due to their high biocompatibility and stability, high specific surface area and volume ratio, high porosity and high similarity to extracellular matrix (ECM) [ 14 ]. Currently, polymeric nanofibers can be loaded with proteins [ 28 ], polysaccharides [ 29 ], and growth factors [ 30 ], and it has also been used to load lipophilic drugs such as ibuprofen and paclitaxel [ 31 , 32 ] and hydrophilic drugs such as ciprofloxacin hydrochloride and metronidazole [ 33 , 34 ]. A timely and comprehensive summary of polymeric nanofibers for DDS is thus highly needed but still lacking.…”