Nanotechnology as a drug delivery in Cancer Treatment

Nanotechnology as a drug delivery in Cancer Treatment

What is Cancer ?

Cancer is a leading cause of death and remains a difficult disease to treat. It was estimated that there would be 18.1 million new cancer cases and 9.6 million cancer-related deaths by 2018 (Global cancer statistics 2018). Besides, cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell proliferation that spreads to other parts of the organs to cause death. Moreover, cancers can be either benign (noncancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Benign means tend to grow slowly and do not spread to other organs meanwhile malignant can grow rapidly, invade and destroy nearby healthy tissues, and spread to whole parts of the body. Therefore, current technology as nanotechnology are being used to treat cancer.

How Does Nanotechnology as a Drug Delivery?

A nanotechnology is a great tool in the fight against cancer. It is safer and more precise. This application has led to several promising results in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Not only that, it includes drug delivery, gene therapy, detection and diagnosis, drug carriage, biomarker mapping, targeted therapy, and molecular imaging.

The nanotechnology cancer treatments work to destroy cancer tumors with minimal damage to healthy tissue and organs, as well as the detection and elimination of cancer cells before they form tumors.

However, nanotechnology diagnoses and treats disease at a very tiny scale. Frankly, the particles are 100 to 10,000 times smaller than human cells. Because of their small size, they can locate and kill cancer more precisely than current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy. However, many drugs are insoluble, so it difficult to administer. These compounds can be “solubilize” by combining them with organic or lipid nanoparticles, which keep them in circulation for longer periods, or by forming them into crystalline Nano suspensions stabilized by surfactants.

Nanotechnology treatments, for instance, the development of nanoscale drug delivery, can ensure precise cancerous tissue targeting with low side effects. Thus, it can easily cross the cell barrier due to its biological nature.

The tiny size of nanoparticles allows them to deliver medicines into which areas of the part of the human body that be hard to reach. For instance, the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier prevents foreign substances from entering into the brain and also prevents some medications from being absorbed. As a result of their small size, nanoparticles can pass through this barrier, making them a useful treatment for brain cancer.

Nanotechnology Tools Used in Cancer Diagnosis

Nanotechnology can validate cancer imaging at the tissue, cell, and molecular levels, according to current research. Its use in the development of nanomaterials, which include the following:

Near Infrared (NIR) Quantum Dots
Nanoshells
Colloidal Gold Nanoparticles

Is Nanotechnology Now in Use?

Nanotechnology has been used for more than a decade by doctors to treat cancer. For instance, abraxane and doxil, aid in the efficacy of chemotherapy drugs.

Abraxane is a nanoparticle made of the protein albumin and the chemotherapy drug docetaxel. It inhibits the division of cancer cells. Furthermore, this medication to treat breast cancer and pancreatic cancer that already spread to other parts of the body and non-small-cell lung cancer.

Doxil known as doxorubicin will wrap in a liposome, which is a fatty sac. It disrupts cancer genes, preventing cancer cells from dividing. This drug use to treat cancers of the ovary, multiple myeloma, and Kaposi’s sarcoma.

Does Nanotechnology for Cancer Have Side Effects?

Nanotechnology more precisely targets cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues. However, nanotechnology drugs may have fewer side effects than chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In the case of nanotechnology-based treatments, abraxane and doxil do cause side effects which are weight loss, nausea, and diarrhea.

References:

Nanotechnology, cancer, cancerous, cancer cells, drug delivery, treatment, death, cell proliferation, organs, benign, malignant, healthy tissues, body, safer, precise, diagnosis, tumors, cancer cells, tiny scale, human cells, kill, inhibits, chemotherapy, insoluble, solubilized, lipid nanoparticle, crystalline nano suspensions, stabilized, surfactants, nanoscale, cell barrier, blood-brain barrier, biological nature, medicines, drugs, foreign substances, Nanoshells, (NIR) Quantum Dots, Colloidal Gold Nanoparticles, chemotherapy, genes, side effects.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Raihan Ridzuan

Raihan Ridzuan, Bachelor of Science (Hons) Pharmacology, is Customer Relationship Executive of Mayflax, one of the nation’s leading healthcare and marketing company

April 13, 2021April 13, 2021

Choosing Pharmaceutical Products for Clinics and Hospitals

To ensure your patients receive proper medical care, you must stock up your healthcare facility with the right type of pharmaceutical products in sufficient quantities.

However, this process can be complicated and incur high costs when not carried out systematically. Here are the factors you should consider when choosing products for your clinic or hospital.

1. Legal requirements

To obtain drug supplies from manufacturers and wholesalers for your facility, you first need to have an Annual Practicing Certificate (APC) as stated in the Poisons Act 1952. You will also need to renew your APC annually.

2. Choosing the Right Pharmaceutical Products Supplier

Did you know that the cost of pharmaceutical products is the second-highest after staff costs in any given country’s healthcare system?

Besides that, the public has voiced their disapproval regarding private facilities known to overcharge for products. This has led to the public purchasing directly from pharmacies and companies sourcing from pharmacies to reduce staff medical benefit costs.

Therefore, researching and finding a supplier committed to providing reasonably-priced and high-quality products is critical. This way, you will be able to offer affordable services to your patients. Make sure to consider the supplier’s prices, shipping policy, dependability, return policy, drug quality and reputation.

3. Types and Quantities of Pharmaceutical Products

The next question is: what products should you procure, and in what quantities? Equipping your facility with the right products and amount to meet your patients’ needs and avoid wastage is crucial.

Firstly, your facility should have sufficient quantities of essential drugs (basic medicines that meet the population’s healthcare needs) at all times. These products are listed on Malaysia’s National Essential Medicine List (NEML).

The NEML currently consists of 359 medicines. Ideally, a hospital should have 150-200 medication on hand, while smaller facilities need around 40-50 medications.

You will also need to carry out quantification to estimate the demand for specific products during a certain period. To quantify accurately, you will need information from the essential medicines list, consumption data, epidemiological data, prescription patterns, stock levels, stock-out frequencies, and length of procurement cycles.

4. Storing Pharmaceutical Products

Before purchasing pharmaceutical products, you need to ensure your facility has the right storage conditions for every product.

Besides, you will have to maintain proper segregation, temperature, lighting, humidity, sanitation, and ventilation levels. Additionally, you must keep dangerous drugs and psychotropic substances under lock and key with an alarm system.

These measures are vital to avoid contamination, disfiguration of labels, theft and loss, and pest infestation and maintain the product quality or potency.

Lastly, you should monitor and take note of each product’s expiry date regularly. Moreover, implementing a FEFO (First To Expire First Out) policy can help avoid wastage.

If you’re looking to procure pharmaceutical products for your facility, Mayflax can help you. Mayflax is a one-stop pharmaceutical wholesaler that provides over 2,000 quality pharmaceutical products to healthcare professionals at low prices. Find out more about them here.

August 24, 2020July 19, 2021

No adverse CV outcomes and excess risks of death from Febuxostat

Source from MIMS.com

According to the results of a meta-analysis, the use of febuxostat does not appear to come with an increased hazard of mortality or adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes, for the treatment of patients with gout and hyperuricemia.

Data from 15 randomized controlled trials were collected by researchers and contributed to a total of 16,070 participants. The proportion of patients with hypertension varied between 27.7 percent and 100.0 percent, while those with diabetes ranged from 6.9 percent to 100.0 percent.

A median follow-up of 6.4 months were used across the trials, and the use of febuxostat vs control (allopurinol or placebo) did not result in a significant increase in the risk of CV mortality and all-cause mortality.

The same was true for adverse CV outcomes, as follows: major adverse CV events (risk difference [RD] 1.40 percent), myocardial infarction (RD, -0.06 percent), stroke (RD, 0.10 percent), or new-onset hypertension (RD, 1.58 percent).

Among patients with existing CV disease, the findings were consistent and the test (Egger’s regression test) did not detect significant publication bias.

The evidence were limited by the presence of low to moderate certainty, the researchers said. Recommendations of evaluating CV events and mortality as an outcome were stated by the researchers, as well as defining major adverse CV events, and comparing the outcomes among different doses of febuxostat over a longer follow-up duration in future trials.

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