Mesoporous silica nanoparticle can be used for delivering hydrophobic anticancer drugs

12 June 2007

The solubility of anticancer drug in water is one of the major problems and almost all major anticancer drugs are hydrophobic. Cancer therapy requires addition of solvents so that the cancer cells easily absorb these anticancer drugs. The main disadvantage of using these solvents is that these reduce the potency of the anticancer drugs as well these are toxic and can have side effects.

At present the major cancer therapies includes CPT or Taxol. Camptothecin is also known as CPT and its derivatives are most effective for treating various carcinomas such as colon, bladder, neck, stomach etc. CPT requires its mixing with organic solvents so that it can be delivered to the cancer cells.

Researcher’s at ULCA California Nanosystem Institute have carried out a study using silica based nanoparticle to deliver anticancer drug camptothecin in cancer cells and found that these can be delivered directly to the desired places without adding diluents to the drug. The research is useful and it promises an answer to the tough challenge of delivering anticancer drugs.

Researcher’s developed a useful method and they incorporated the water insoluble anticancer drug into the nanomaterial pores. These pores of especially mesoporous silica nanoparticle are able to hold and deliver the drug at the various human cancer cells. The excellent outcome of the study suggests that these mesoporous silica nanoparticles are the best options before us for delivering anticancer drug or any other hydrophobic drug.

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