Nanocapsules to combat drug resistance in chemo

With anti-drug resistance being a major concern for the healthcare sector, scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed nanocapsules that can combat drug resistance and be used to effectively deliver anti-cancer drugs to targeted breast cancer cells during chemotherapy.

Nanocapsules can encapsulate drugs, allowing for controlled release and targeted delivery to particular cells that are affected by cancer. Such capsules show potential for combating drug resistance.

Cancer is difficult to treat because it involves the mutation of body’s own cells. These mutations can change the behaviour of cancer-affected cells, thereby reducing the effectiveness of existing treatment methods.

For example, chemotherapy can potentially increase drug resistance in cancer cells and lead to mutations causing an increase in the number of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs). This allows solid tumours to grow faster, become malignant and then spread to other parts of the body, the IISc said.

Researchers, led by Ashok Raichur, have used polyelectrolyte nanocapsules made with biopolymers to deliver the anti-cancer drug Doxorubicin (Dox) to breast cancer cells. The drug is released only once the capsule enters the cancer cell, making its delivery highly specific.

The team found that cancer cells retained significantly higher quantities of Dox when it was delivered using these nanocapsules as opposed to traditional free delivery systems.

The nanocapsules had outside films that also helped in targeted drug delivery.

Additionally, the biopolymer films outside the nanocapsules lessened the undesirable effects of Dox on the cancer cell population. This reduced the rate of development of stem-like cancer cells, leading to a more effective removal of the tumour. Such nanocapsules show potential to effectively deliver drugs to cancer cells without promoting drug resistance.

“Using nanocapsules allows the additional advantage of high internal volume, resulting in a more packed drug concentration and requirement for fewer nanocapsules to be administered. Further, the results suggest that treatment with drug-loaded polyelectrolyte nanocapsules might enhance therapeutic efficiency by diminishing the cancer stem-like population,” the study said.

India