Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination
We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser and may not function properly. More information
    Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2011 Aug;4(8):1158-71. doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-10-0006. Epub 2011 May 5.

    Advanced drug delivery systems of curcumin for cancer chemoprevention.

    Source

    Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville Health Science Center, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

    Abstract

    Since ancient times, chemopreventive agents have been used to treat/prevent several diseases including cancer. They are found to elicit a spectrum of potent responses including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiproliferative, anticarcinogenic, and antiangiogenic activity in various cell cultures and some animal studies. Research over the past 4 decades has shown that chemopreventives affect a number of proteins involved in various molecular pathways that regulate inflammatory and carcinogenic responses in a cell. Various enzymes, transcription factors, receptors, and adhesion proteins are also affected by chemopreventives. Although, these natural compounds have shown significant efficacy in cell culture studies, they elicited limited efficacy in various clinical studies. Their introduction into the clinical setting is hindered largely by their poor solubility, rapid metabolism, or a combination of both, ultimately resulting in poor bioavailability upon oral administration. Therefore, to circumvent these limitations and to ease their transition to clinics, alternate strategies should be explored. Drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles, liposomes, microemulsions, and polymeric implantable devices are emerging as one of the viable alternatives that have been shown to deliver therapeutic concentrations of various potent chemopreventives such as curcumin, ellagic acid, green tea polyphenols, and resveratrol into the systemic circulation. In this review article, we have attempted to provide a comprehensive outlook for these delivery approaches, using curcumin as a model agent, and discussed future strategies to enable the introduction of these highly potent chemopreventives into a physician's armamentarium.

    PMID:
    21546540
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID:
    PMC3151314
    Free PMC Article

    Images from this publication.See all images (4)Free text

    Figure 1
    Figure 3
    Figure 2
    Figure 4

      Supplemental Content

      Icon for HighWire Icon for PubMed Central

      Save items

      Recent activity

      Your browsing activity is empty.

      Activity recording is turned off.

      Turn recording back on

      See more...
      Write to the Help Desk