Erlotinib-loaded carboxymethyl temarind gum semi-interpenetrating nanocomposites

State-of-the-art progress on tamarind seed polysaccharide (Tamarindus indica) and its diverse potential applications, a review with insight

Tamarind seed polysaccharide (TSP) is a biocompatible, non-ionic polymer with antioxidant properties. Its uses include drug delivery, food industry, and wastewater treatment. TSP has various hydroxy functional groups, one of the most favorable sites for graft copolymerization of different monomers. Hence, various chemical methods for TSP modification were developed to satisfy increasing industrial demand. Of particular interest in scientific community are the methods of graft copolymerization because of their ability to alter the physicochemical properties of TSP, including pH sensitivity and the swelling index, leading to improvements in the adsorption efficiency of hazardous heavy metals and dyes from wastewater effluents. Moreover, in recent years, TSP has been used for controlled drug delivery applications due to its unique advantages of high viscosity, broad pH tolerance, non-carcinogenicity, mucoadhesive properties, biocompatibility, and high drug entrapment capacity. In light of the plethora of literature on the topic, a comprehensive review of TSP-based graft copolymers and unmodified and modified TSP important applications is necessary. Therefore, this review comprehensively highlights several synthetic strategies for TSP-grafted copolymers and discusses unmodified and modified TSP potential applications, including cutting-edge pharmaceutical, environmental applications, etc. In brief, its many advantages make TSP-based polysaccharide a promising material for applications in various industries.

Layered Clay Minerals in Cancer Therapy: Recent Progress and Prospects

Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases, and current treatment regimens suffer from limited efficacy, nonspecific toxicity, and chemoresistance. With the advantages of good biocompatibility, large specific surface area, excellent cation exchange capacity, and easy availability, clay minerals have been receiving ever-increasing interests in cancer treatment. They can act as carriers to reduce the toxic side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs, and some of their own properties can kill cancer cells, etc. Compared with other morphologies clays, layered clay minerals (LCM) have attracted more and more attention due to adjustable interlayer spacing, easier ion exchange, and stronger adsorption capacity. In this review, the structure, classification, physicochemical properties, and functionalization methods of LCM are summarized. The state-of-the-art progress of LCM in antitumor therapy is systematically described, with emphasis on the application of montmorillonite, kaolinite, and vermiculite. Furthermore, the property-function relationships of LCM are comprehensively illustrated to reveal the design principles of clay-based antitumor systems. Finally, foreseeable challenges and outlook in this field are discussed.

Recent Advances in Boosting EGFR Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors-Based Cancer Therapy

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays a key role in signal transduction pathways associated with cell proliferation, growth, and survival. Its overexpression and aberrant activation in malignancy correlate with poor prognosis and short survival. Targeting inhibition of EGFR by small-molecular tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is emerging as an important treatment model besides of chemotherapy, greatly reshaping the landscape of cancer therapy. However, they are still challenged by the off-targeted toxicity, relatively limited cancer types, and drug resistance after long-term therapy. In this review, we summarize the recent progress of oral, pulmonary, and injectable drug delivery systems for enhanced and targeting TKI delivery to tumors and reduced side effects. Importantly, EGFR-TKI-based combination therapies not only greatly broaden the applicable cancer types of EGFR-TKI but also significantly improve the anticancer effect. The mechanisms of TKI resistance are summarized, and current strategies to overcome TKI resistance as well as the application of TKI in reversing chemotherapy resistance are discussed. Finally, we provide a perspective on the future research of EGFR-TKI-based cancer therapy.

Engineering Transferrin-Decorated Pullulan-Based Prodrug Nanoparticles for Redox Responsive Paclitaxel Delivery to Metastatic Lung Cancer Cells

Paclitaxel (PTX) remains a cornerstone in the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic lung cancer. To improve its therapeutic indices against lung cancer, novel redox-sensitive pullulan/PTX-based prodrug NPs (PULL-SS-PTX NPs) were accomplished, which were further surface-decorated with transferrin (TF), a cancer cell-targeting ligand, to afford TF-PULL-SS-PTX NPs. These prodrug NPs (drug content, >37% and average size, 134-163 nm) rapidly dismantled their self-assembled architecture upon exposure to simulated reducing conditions, causing a triggered drug release as compared to the control scaffold (PULL-CC-PTX NPs). These scaffolds also evidenced outstanding colloidal stability, cellular uptake efficiency, and discriminating cytotoxicity between the cancer and healthy cells. Intravenously delivered redox-sensitive NPs exhibited improved tumor-suppressing properties as compared to the control nanovesicles (PULL-CC-PTX NPs) in a B16-F10 melanoma lung metastasis mice model. The targeting efficiency and associated augmented anticancer potentials of TF-PULL-SS-PTX NPs relative to TF-free redox-responsive NPs and Taxol intravenous injection were also established on the transferrin receptor (TFR) overexpressed Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC-luc) cell-bearing mice model. Moreover, the TF-functionalized scaffold displayed a reduced systemic toxicity compared to that of Taxol intravenous injection. Overall, the proposed TF-decorated prodrug NPs could be a promising nanomedicine for intracellular PTX delivery against metastatic lung cancer.

Ultra pH-sensitive nanocarrier based on Fe2O3/chitosan/montmorillonite for quercetin delivery

Harmful side effects of the chemotherapeutic agent have been investigated in many recent studies. Since Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles have proper porosity, they are capable for loading noticeable amount of drugs and controlled release. We developed Fe₂O₃/chitosan/montmorillonite nanocomposite. Quercetin (QC) nanoparticles, which have fewer side effects than chemical anti-tumor drugs, were encapsulated in the synthesized nanocarrier and were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential. For quercetin, the encapsulation efficiency and the loading efficiency of the drug in Fe₂O₃-CS-MMT@QC were found to be about 94% and 57%, respectively. The release profile of QC in different mediums indicated pH-dependency and controlled release of the nanocomposite, adhering to The Weibull kinetic model. Biocompatibility of the Fe₂O₃/CS/MMT nanoparticles against the MCF-7 cells was shown by MTT assay and confirmed by flow cytometry. These data demonstrate that the designed Fe₂O₃-CS-MMT@QC would have potential drug delivery to treat cancer cells.

Hypoxia-responsive pullulan-based nanoparticles as erlotinib carriers

A hypoxia-responsive pullulan-based co-polymer was developed to assess its efficacy to deliver erlotinib (ERL) to the cervical cancer cells. Upon exposure to hypoxic condition, the synthesized and structurally characterized co-polymer i.e. succinyl pullulan-g-6-(2-nitroimidazole) hexylamine (Pull-SA-HA-NI) exhibited a hypochromic shift in the UV spectra and alteration in its self-assembled structures as compared to the control co-polymer, succinyl pullulan-g-hexylamine (Pull-SA-HA). Its corresponding ERL-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) displayed an attenuated crystallinity of pure ERL with excellent drug-trapping capacity (DEE, 94.23 ± 1.36%) and acceptable zeta potential (+39.21 ± 1.09 mV) and diameter (84.10 ± 2.10 nm) values. These also evidenced a faster drug release profile under hypoxic condition relative to the normoxic condition. The cellular internalization of the NPs was mediated through the energy-dependent endocytic process, which could utilize its multiple pathways (i.e., macropinocytosis, clathrin- and caveolae-mediated endocytosis). The ERL-loaded NPs suppressed HeLa cell proliferation and induced apoptosis more efficiently than the pristine drug.

Etherified pullulan-polyethylenimine based nanoscaffolds improved chemosensitivity of erlotinib on hypoxic cancer cells

The current research endeavor aimed to accomplish hypoxia-responsive polyethyleneimine-conjugated carboxymethyl pullulan-based co-polymer (CMP-HA-NI-PEI-NBA) bearing nitroaromatic subunits to efficiently deliver erlotinib (ERL) to reverse its hypoxia-induced resistance in cancer cells. As compared to a control co-polymer (CMP-HA-MI-PEI-BA) devoid of hypoxia-sensitive moieties, this scaffold demonstrated a hypochromic shift in the UV spectra and rapid dismantling of its self-assembled architecture upon exposure to simulated hypoxic condition. The hypoxia-responsive co-polymer encapsulated ERL with desirable loading capacity (DEE, 63.05 ± 2.59%), causing attenuated drug crystallinity. The drug release rate of the scaffold under reducing condition was faster relative to that of non-reducing environment. Their cellular uptake occurred through an energy-dependent endocytic process, which could exploit its caveolae/lipid raft-mediated internalization pathway. The ERL-loaded scaffolds more efficiently induced apoptosis and suppressed the proliferation of drug-resistant hypoxic HeLa cells than the pristine ERL. Hence, this study presented a promising drug delivery nanoplatform to overcome hypoxia-evoked ERL resistance.

Chemosensitivity assessments of curdlan-doped smart nanocomposites containing erlotinib HCl

Curdlan (CN)-doped montmorillonite/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide) [CN/MT/P(NIPA-co-MBA)] smart nanocomposites (NCs) were developed for efficient erlotinib HCl (ERL) delivery to lung cancer cells. The placebo NCs demonstrated excellent biodegradability, pH/thermo-responsive swelling profiles and declined molar mass (M¯c) between the crosslinks with increasing temperature. The XRD, FTIR, DSC, TGA, and SEM analyses revealed the architectural chemistry of these NC scaffolds. The NCs loaded with ERL (F-1-F-3) displayed acceptable diameter (734-1120 nm) and zeta potential (+1.16 to -11.17 mV), outstanding drug entrapping capability (DEE, 78-99%) and sustained biphasic ERL elution patterns (Q_8h, 53-91%). The ERL release kinetics of the optimal matrices (F-3) obeyed Higuchi model and their transport occurred through anomalous diffusion. The mucin adsorption behaviour of these matrices followed Freudlich isotherms. As compared to pure ERL, the formulation (F-3) displayed an improved anti-proliferative potential and induced apoptosis more effectively on A549 cells. Thus, the CN-doped smart NCs could be utilized as promising drug-cargoes for lung cancer therapy.