Thermosensitive Interfacial Migration of 5-FU in the Microenvironment of Pluronic Block Copolymers

Body Composition, Relative Dose Intensity, and Adverse Events among Patients with Colon Cancer

BACKGROUND

Despite evidence that low muscle increases the risk of chemotoxicity, most chemotherapies are dosed on body surface area without considering body composition. Among 178 patients with colon cancer, we assessed muscle and adipose tissue with multiple techniques and examined their associations with relative dose intensity (RDI) and adverse events.

METHODS

We estimated (i) cross-sectional skeletal muscle area (SMA) and total adipose tissue (TAT) area at L3 from computed tomography (CT); (ii) appendicular lean mass (ALM) and total body fat (TBF) mass from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); and (iii) total body skeletal muscle mass using D3-creatine (D3Cr) dilution. We standardized each measurement by its sex-specific standard deviation (SD). The primary outcome was reduced RDI (RDI <85%). The secondary outcome was the number of moderate and severe adverse events during each cycle of chemotherapy. We estimated the associations of muscle and adipose tissue measurements (per SD increase) with reduced RDI using logistic regression and adverse events using generalized estimating equations for repeated measures.

RESULTS

Higher CT SMA and DXA ALM were significantly associated with a lower risk of reduced RDI [odds ratios: 0.56 (0.38-0.81) for CT SMA; 0.56 (0.37-0.84) for DXA ALM]. No measurements of muscle or adipose tissue were associated with adverse events.

CONCLUSIONS

More muscle was associated with improved chemotherapy completion among patients with colon cancer, whereas muscle and adipose tissue were not associated with adverse events.

IMPACT

Considering body composition may help personalize dosing for colon cancer chemotherapy by identifying patients at risk for poor chemotherapy outcomes.

Injectable Hydrogels Based on Cyclodextrin/Cholesterol Inclusion Complexation and Loaded with 5-Fluorouracil/Methotrexate for Breast Cancer Treatment

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide. Long-term treatment with conventional chemotherapy may result in severe systemic side effects. Therefore, the localized delivery of chemotherapy helps to overcome such a problem. In this article, self-assembling hydrogels were constructed via inclusion complexation between host β-cyclodextrin polymers (8armPEG20k-CD and pβ-CD) and the guest polymers 8-armed poly(ethylene glycol) capped either with cholesterol (8armPEG20k-chol) or adamantane (8armPEG20k-Ad) and were loaded with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and methotrexate (MTX). The prepared hydrogels were characterized by SEM and rheological behaviors. The in vitro release of 5-FU and MTX was studied. The cytotoxicity of our modified systems was investigated against breast tumor cells (MCF-7) using an MTT assay. Additionally, the histopathological changes in breast tissues were monitored before and after their intratumor injection. The results of rheological characterization indicated the viscoelastic behavior in all cases except for 8armPEG-Ad. In vitro release results showed a variable range of release profiles from 6 to 21 days, depending on the hydrogel composition. MTT findings indicated the inhibition ability of our systems against the viability of cancer cells depending on the kind and concentration of the hydrogel and the incubation period. Moreover, the results of histopathology showed the improvement of cancer manifestation (swelling and inflammation) after intratumor injection of loaded hydrogel systems. In conclusion, the obtained results indicated the applicability of the modified hydrogels as injectable vehicles for both loading and controlled release of anticancer therapies.

Investigation of Solution Behavior of Antidepressant Imipramine Hydrochloride Drug and Non-Ionic Surfactant Mixture: Experimental and Theoretical Study

In this paper, the interaction of imipramine hydrochloride (IMP, antidepressant drug) and a non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100 (TX-100) mixture in five different ratios through the tensiometric method in different solvents (aqueous/0.050 mol·kg⁻¹ aqueous NaCl/0.250 mol·kg⁻¹ aqueous urea (U)) were examined thoroughly at a temperature of 298 K. UV–Visible studies in an aqueous system of IMP + TX-100 mixtures were also investigated and discussed in detail. The pure (IMP and TX-100) along with the mixtures’ critical micelle concentration (cmc) were assessed by a tensiometric technique. The obtained deviation of the mixtures’ cmc values from their ideal values revealed the nonideal behavior of IMP + TX-100 mixtures amongst IMP and TX-100. Compared to aqueous systems, in the presence of aqueous NaCl, several changes in micelles/mixed micelles occurred, and hence a synergism/attractive interaction amongst components was found increased while in the existence of U, the synergism/attractive interaction between them decreased. The evaluated interaction parameter (β^Rb) value of mixed micelles showed the attractive or synergism between the IMP and TX-100. Various evaluated thermodynamic parameters in an aqueous system showed that the mixed micellization of the IMP + TX-100 mixture was an entropically spontaneous phenomenon, although the existence of salt in all studied systems can somewhat increase the spontaneity of the micellization process and in the aqueous U system, the spontaneity of the micellization process decreased. In an aqueous system, the interaction between IMP and TX-100 was also confirmed by UV–Visible study.