Title:Potential of Nanomedicines as an Alternative for the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer
- A Review
Volume: 24
Issue: 7
Author(s): Kammila Martins Nicolau Costa, Larissa Alves Barros, Ingrid Larissa da Silva Soares and João Augusto Oshiro-Junior*
Affiliation:
- Post-graduation Program in Technological Development and Innovation in Medicines (PPgDITM) - Universidade Federal da Paraíba,
João Pessoa, PB, Brazil
Keywords:
Nanoparticles, drug delivery system, chemotherapy, cancer treatment, 5-fluorouracil, resistance mechanisms.
Abstract: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second in cases of cancer-related death.
Polytherapy generates many adverse effects, leading the patient to give up. Nanotechnology has been studied in
recent years to circumvent limitations. Groups composed of polymeric, lipid, and inorganic nanoparticles are the
most purpose. Thus, the objective of this work is to bring information on how nanosystems can improve the
chemotherapeutic treatment for colorectal cancer. Therefore, a search in journals such as "LILACS", "SciELO"
and "PubMed/Medline" was performed, resulting in 25,000 articles found when applied the search engines "nanoparticle,"
"colorectal cancer," "malignant neoplasms," and "chemotherapy." After inclusion and exclusion
factors, 24 articles remained, which were used as the basis for this integrative review. The results reveal that,
regardless of the choice of matrix, nanoparticles showed an increase in bioavailability of the active, increasing the
half-life by up to 13 times, modified release, as well as a significant reduction in tumor size, with cell viability up
to 20% lower than the free drug tested, in different colorectal cancer cell lines, such as HCT-116, HT-29, and
CaCo-2. However, more in vivo and clinical studies need to be performed, regardless of the formulation of its
matrix, aiming at a higher rate of safety for patients and stability of the formulations, as well as knowledge of
detailed indices of its pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, seeking to avoid further damage to the recipient
organism.