Drug and Gene Delivery Strategies for Breast Cancer Therapy

A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmaceutical Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 July 2024 | Viewed by 4709

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculdade de Farmácia, Departamento de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, R. José Lourenço Kelmer s/n, Campus Universitário, Juiz de Fora 36036-900, MG, Brazil
Interests: siRNA; RNAi; nanoparticles; nanocarriers; qPCR; molecular biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Breast cancers still pose major challenges to health sciences. They are complex diseases that affect women worldwide. At present, the therapies available for the treatment of breast cancer have a wide range of side effects and systemic complications, reducing the well-being of the patient and hindering their recovery. Moreover, tumor resistance to chemotherapeutics, tumor recurrence and metastasis are huge obstacles to be overcome to reach an improved prognosis. Thus, new therapeutic strategies for more effective treatments are urgently required.

Novel drug and gene delivery systems may have the ability to overcome the hurdles and ultimately improve the prognosis. Nano-sized medicines containing either nucleic acids or chemical drugs that act by reducing proliferation, survival, differentiation, invasion, and angiogenesis are promising systems. In addition, these systems can modulate pharmacokinetics and biodistribution, in order to concentrate the drug in specific tissues or modify the tumor microenvironment.

This Special Issue welcomes research pertaining to the design, development and application of novel drug and gene delivery systems for breast cancer therapy. Distinct strategies, such as the co-delivery of drugs or genes, siRNA-based systems, pDNA delivery systems, and CRISPR approaches, are especially welcome.

Prof. Dr. Frederico Pittella
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • drug delivery system
  • gene delivery
  • breast cancer
  • nanoparticles
  • RNAi
  • gene therapy
  • liposomes
  • micelles

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

17 pages, 2772 KiB  
Article
Formulation of Lipid-Based Nanoparticles for Simultaneous Delivery of Lapatinib and Anti-Survivin siRNA for HER2+ Breast Cancer Treatment
by Sahar Eljack, Stephanie David, Igor Chourpa, Areeg Faggad and Emilie Allard-Vannier
Pharmaceuticals 2022, 15(12), 1452; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ph15121452 - 23 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1966
Abstract
In this work, lipid-based nanoparticles (LBNP) were designed to combine tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Lapatinib (LAPA) with siRNA directed against apoptosis inhibitor protein Survivin (siSurvivin) in an injectable form. This nanosystem is based on lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) coated with a cationic polymeric shell [...] Read more.
In this work, lipid-based nanoparticles (LBNP) were designed to combine tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Lapatinib (LAPA) with siRNA directed against apoptosis inhibitor protein Survivin (siSurvivin) in an injectable form. This nanosystem is based on lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) coated with a cationic polymeric shell composed of chitosan grafted through a transacylation reaction. The hydrophobic LAPA is solubilized in the inner oily core, while hydrophilic siRNA is associated electrostatically onto the nanocarrier’s surface. The co-loaded LBNP showed a narrow size distribution (polydispersity index (PDI) < 0.3), a size of 130 nm, and a slightly positive zeta potential (+21 mV). LAPA and siRNA were loaded in LBNP at a high rate of >90% (10.6 mM) and 100% (4.6 µM), respectively. The siRNA-LAPA_LBNP was readily uptaken by the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 overexpressed (HER2+) breast cancer cell line SK-BR-3. Moreover, the cytotoxicity studies confirmed that the blank chitosan decorated LBNP is not toxic to the cells with the tested concentrations, which correspond to LAPA concentrations from 1 to 10 µM, at different incubation times up to 96 h. Furthermore, siCtrl.-LAPA_LBNP had a more cytotoxic effect than Lapatinib salt, while siSurvivin-LAPA_LBNP had a significant synergistic cytotoxic effect compared to siCtrl.-LAPA_LBNP. All these findings suggested that the developed modified LBNP could potentiate anti-Survivin siRNA and LAPA anti-cancer activity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug and Gene Delivery Strategies for Breast Cancer Therapy)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

23 pages, 2990 KiB  
Article
Phosphatidylcholine-Based Nanoemulsions for Paclitaxel and a P-Glycoprotein Inhibitor Delivery and Breast Cancer Intraductal Treatment
by Giovanna Cassone Salata and Luciana B. Lopes
Pharmaceuticals 2022, 15(9), 1110; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ph15091110 - 6 Sep 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1925
Abstract
In this study, incorporation of the cytotoxic agent paclitaxel and the P-glycoprotein inhibitor elacridar in hyaluronic acid (HA)-modified nanoemulsions was studied for intraductal delivery and breast cancer localized treatment. To improve cytotoxicity, we investigated the incorporation of perillyl alcohol or tributyrin as components [...] Read more.
In this study, incorporation of the cytotoxic agent paclitaxel and the P-glycoprotein inhibitor elacridar in hyaluronic acid (HA)-modified nanoemulsions was studied for intraductal delivery and breast cancer localized treatment. To improve cytotoxicity, we investigated the incorporation of perillyl alcohol or tributyrin as components of the nanoemulsion oil phase. The nanoemulsions presented size <180 nm and negative zeta potential. Both tributyrin and perillyl alcohol increased nanoemulsion cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cells, but not in MDA-MB-231. However, perillyl alcohol reduced nanoemulsion stability in the presence of the drugs. Concomitant incorporation of paclitaxel and elacridar in HA- and tributyrin-containing nanoemulsions (PE-NETri) increased cytotoxicity and reduced IC50 by 1.6 to 3-fold in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells compared to the nanoemulsion containing only paclitaxel (P-NE). This nanoemulsion also produced a 3.3-fold reduction in the viability of MDA-MB-231 spheroids. Elacridar incorporated in the nanoemulsion was capable of inhibiting P-glycoprotein in membranes. In vivo intraductal administration of the NE containing HA resulted in a three-fold higher retention of a fluorescent marker compared to a solution or nanoemulsion without HA, demonstrating the importance of HA. The nanoemulsion produced no histological changes in the mammary tissue. These results support the potential applicability of the nanoemulsion for local breast cancer management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug and Gene Delivery Strategies for Breast Cancer Therapy)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop