Nanotechnology for Drug Delivery and Cancer Therapy

Nanotechnology facilitates exclusive opportunities for investigating and controlling a wide range of biomedical approaches at nano-scale, which could provide a groundbreaking impact on medicine, biology, and other health-related areas. This latest technology offers certain distinctive benefits in different aspects such as nanocarriers of targeted drug delivery system, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, vaccination and immunotherapy, biosensing and imaging for clinical diagnosis. A wide range of nanomaterials with biomedical prominence have already been exploited for drug delivery and cancer therapy comprising, solid lipid nanoparticles, metallic nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, carbon nanotube, nanogel-based compounds, nanocapsules, magnetic nanoparticles, nanofluids, nanowires, liposomes, etc. Therefore, this chapter reviewed the potential use of different nanomaterials for therapeutic applications, especially for drug delivery and cancer diagnosis and therapy by focusing their suitability and biocompatibility for extensive and safer usages.

The Crystal Structure Elucidation of a Tetrapeptide Analog of Somatostatin DOTA-Phe-D-Trp-Lys-Thr-OMe

Herewith, we report for the first time the crystal structure of tetrapeptide FwKT (Phe-D-Trp-Lys-Thr), which is considered to represent an epitope for biomedically relevant hormone somatostatin. The target molecule was successfully crystalized, solved and refined as a conjugate of the tetrapeptide moiety bearing a protective group DOTA at the N-terminus and methylated at the O-terminus. The combination of a hormone active site and a powerful chelator make the substance a highly prospective targeted drug delivery system, especially for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) applications.

Potential application of Colonic drug delivery system in prevention and treatment of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in USA. The current regimen used to treat colorectal cancer has many side effects and have higher drug distribution in other tissues. Physical activity and diet play major role in prevention of Colon cancer which is briefly discussed in this paper. Colon targeted drug delivery system (CoDDS) is found to be a promising approach to target the drug specifically to colon. This review provides the description of various colon targeted approaches that can be used to treat CRC. Factors to be consider while designing CoDDS include pH of GIT, Transit time of GI tract and Microbiota of colon. This review will discuss the staging and standard treatments modalities for CRC.

Niosomes as Nano-carrier Based Targeted Drug Delivery System

Niosomes are considered as novel nano-carrier in the drug delivery systems. These are much more stable than other nano-carriers like liposomes and nanoparticles. It is an example for targeted and control release of medication. The drug is entrapped into lipid core so that it prevents the drug from leaching. Here the drug will be targeted only to the desired cell/tissue and not to the non-targeted cells. By giving this formulation we can thereby reduce the dose of the drug and toxicity. This review article mainly emphasizes on the potential applications of niosomes in targeted drug delivery system. Keywords: niosomes, nanocarriers, targeted drug delivery.