Nanomedicines, which are drugs concealed within nanoscopic lipid membranes (“liposomes”), have the potential to revolutionize chemotherapy by increasing drug delivery and minimizing hazardous side effects for thousands of cancer patients each year.
This discovery has the potential to dramatically transform many cancer treatments and deliver better outcomes for people with cancer. Image Credit: National Cancer Institute.
Recently, the world’s first research carried out by the University of South Australia has discovered that the commonly used chemotherapy drug (5-FU or Fluorouracil) is 100% more efficient at targeting tumors (rather than surrounding tissues) when administered with an optimized liposomal formulation.
The biodistribution of 5-FU liposome formulations has been measured for the first time using a non-invasive sample technique called microdialysis — things that cannot be done as successfully with current imaging technologies.
Every year, roughly 150,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Australia. It is the main cause of mortality in the world, with almost 10 million fatalities every year (nearly one in six deaths).
Chemotherapy is frequently used to treat a variety of tumors, with 5-FU being one of the most commonly utilized drugs. Nausea and vomiting, hair loss, diarrhea or constipation, weight changes, repeated infections and mouth sores are all possible side effects of this medication.
Professor Clive Prestidge, lead researcher and co-Director of UniSA’s Centre for Pharmaceutical Innovation, said the finding might revolutionize how chemotherapy is delivered, improving the quality of life for thousands of people with cancer.
Chemotherapy is regularly administered to treat many different types of cancers, including breast and colon cancers, but one of the major setbacks of 5-FU is that it does not distribute well to tumor issues and can cause high levels of off-target damage. As a result, many patients suffer adverse effects and can get very sick during treatment.
Clive Prestidge, Professor, Lead Researcher and Co-Director, Centre for Pharmaceutical Innovation, University of South Australia
Professor Prestidge added, “Liposomal formulations present great opportunities for safer and more effective cancer medications because they prolong the retention of encapsulated drugs and can better target tumors. But optimizing them for chemotherapy drugs has always proved challenging.”
Our microdialysis approach is the first to quantify how liposomal-specific delivery of 5-FU can reduce tumor growth with fewer toxic side effects, so it has the potential to dramatically transform many cancer treatments and deliver better outcomes for people with cancer.
Clive Prestidge, Professor, Lead Researcher and Co-Director, Centre for Pharmaceutical Innovation, University of South Australia
Journal Reference:
Wang, W., et al. (2022) Liposomal 5-Fluorouracil Polymer Complexes Facilitate Tumor-Specific Delivery: Pharmaco-Distribution Kinetics Using Microdialysis. Pharmaceutics. doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14020221.