Drug transformation: Advances in drug delivery systems

Prospects of nano-material in breast cancer management

Breast cancer evaluation and early diagnosis are core complexity worldwide and an ambiguity for scientists till date. Nano-materials are innovative tools for rapid diagnosis and therapy, which may induce an immense result in the field of oncology. Their exceptional size-dependent properties make them special and superior materials and quite indispensable in several fields of the human activities. The major obstacle in finding cure for malignant breast cancer is to increase in development of resistances for tumors to the therapeutic treatments. The widespread mammo-graph particle is being developed by nations to diagnosis disease in primitive stage to decline the mortality rates caused by breast carcinoma. The advancement of nano-particle based diagnostic tools facilitates in evaluation and provides encouraging development in breast cancer therapeutics. In this compact review, efforts have been made to compose the current advancements in the area of functional nano-particles. Furthermore, in vivo and in vitro applications of nano-materials in breast cancer management are also discussed.

Human serum albumin nanoparticles as an efficient noscapine drug delivery system for potential use in breast cancer: preparation and in vitro analysis

Drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles can provide enhanced efficacy for anticancer agents. Noscapine, a widely used cough suppressant for decades has recently been shown to cause significant inhibition and regression of tumor volumes without any detectable toxicity in cells or tissues. Nanoparticles made of human serum albumin (HSA) represent promising strategy for targeted drug delivery to tumor cells by enhancing the drug’s bioavailability and distribution, and reducing the body’s response towards drug resistance. In the present study, we report for the first time the incorporation and delivery of noscapine-loaded HSA nanoparticles to tumor cells. The nanoparticles were designed and optimized to achieve a particle size in the range of 150–300 nm with a drug-loading efficiency of 85%–96%. The nanoparticles were evaluated in vitro for their anticancer activity and efficacy on breast cancer cells.

Macrophage inflammatory response to self-assembling rosette nanotubes

Rosette nanotubes (RNTs) are a new class of nanomaterials with significant therapeutic potential. However, societal concerns related to the potential adverse health effects of engineered nanomaterials drew attention towards the investigation of their interaction with the human U937 macrophage cell line. The cells are treated with medium only (control), lysine (50 microg mL(-1)), lysine-functionalized RNTs (RNT-K; 1, 5, and 50 microg mL(-1)), Min-U-Sil quartz microparticles (80 microg mL(-1)), or lipopolysaccharide (1 microg mL(-1)). The supernatant and cells are assayed for cell viability, cytokine protein, and mRNA expression at 1, 6, and 24 h post-treatment. The results indicate that RNT-K activate transcription of proinflammatory genes (interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)) within 1 h, but this effect is not accompanied by protein secretion into the supernatant. The effect of the length of RNTs on human U937 macrophage viability is also investigated. Although both short and long RNT-K exhibit time-dependent effects on TNF-alpha transcription, only the short RNT-K (5 microg mL(-1)) increase TNF-alpha concentration at 6 h relative to the long RNT-K. Moreover, RNT-K (1 and 5 microg mL(-1)) have no effect on cell viability by 24 h. These data indicate that RNT-K do not induce a robust inflammatory response or cytotoxicity in the U937 human macrophage cell line, and therefore could be used for biomedical applications.

Rosette nanotubes show low acute pulmonary toxicity in vivo

Nanotubes are being developed for a large variety of applications ranging from electronics to drug delivery. Common carbon nanotubes such as single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes have been studied in the greatest detail but require solubilization and removal of catalytic contaminants such as metals prior to being introduced to biological systems for medical application. The present in vivo study characterizes the degree and nature of inflammation caused by a novel class of self-assembling rosette nanotubes, which are biologically inspired, naturally water-soluble and free of metal content upon synthesis. Upon pulmonary administration of this material we examined responses at 24 h and 7d post-exposure. An acute inflammatory response is triggered at 50 and 25 microg doses by 24 h post-exposure but an inflammatory response is not triggered by a 5 microg dose. Lung inflammation observed at a 50 microg dose at 24 h was resolving by 7d. This work suggests that novel nanostructures with biological design may negate toxicity concerns for biomedical applications of nanotubes. This study also demonstrates that water-soluble rosette nanotube structures represent low pulmonary toxicity, likely due to their biologically inspired design, and their self-assembled architecture.