Development and in vitro characterization of gemcitabine loaded nanoparticles for pancreatic cancer therapy

Date

2021

Authors

Pham, Jennifer
Ranjan, Amalendu
Vishwanatha, Jamboor

ORCID

0000-0003-0965-3625 (Pham, Jennifer)

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Abstract

Purpose: Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and the most common type of pancreatic malignancy (90%). With a poor five- year survival rate of only 5-8%, complete surgical resection remains the only curative treatment. However, most patients are diagnosed at a later stage where chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the only options. Gemcitabine is the FDA-approved treatment for PDAC but the current therapy leads to more severe side effects due to the instability of gemcitabine in the blood stream and its poor membrane permeability. Nanoparticles are effective in cancer therapy because they allow modifications that make for a more effective delivery method which also reduces the toxicity to normal tissue. Methods: In this proposed study, we aim to formulate, optimize and evaluate the in vitro effectiveness of gemcitabine loaded nanoparticles in PDAC cell lines in order to improve the effectiveness of current chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Results: We found that out of the three types of nanoplatforms used for encapsulating gemcitabine (GEM-NPs): polymeric, liposomal and a hybrid of the polymeric and the liposomal forms, the liposomal nanoparticles were the most effective in the encapsulation of gemcitabine according to the physicochemical properties, such as average particle size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency or drug loading, etc., and in vitro functional evaluation in PDAC cell lines. Conclusion: This study suggests that the use of liposomal nanoparticles is the most beneficial in the encapsulation and delivery of gemcitabine.

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