Chemotherapy is still one of the most effective strategies for treating advanced and metastatic tumors. Unfortunately, chemotherapeutics when delivered in conventional ways, exhibit high toxicity with a narrow therapeutic window and lead to poor efficacy along with serious adverse effects. Prodrugs have a negligible pharmacological activity that release the active and potent drug by undergoing enzymatic and/or chemical reaction. Using our targeted liposomal nanoparticle platform, prodrug has the potential to improve chemotherapeutic delivery with enhanced selectivity for tumor cells and reduced off-target effects. We hypothesize that an optimal balance between pH and enzyme sensitivity will enable the active and highly potent drug to get released selectively only after the liposomal nanoparticle is endocytosed by target cancer cells. In this study, a potential anti-cancer therapeutic has been selected as a model compound due to its limited clinical application along with its pronounced side effects. So, there is a need to improve selective delivery of the anti-cancer therapeutic to reduce its off-target effects while treating cancer patients. Hence, we are developing targeted liposomal nanoparticle prodrug (TNP[Prodrug]) formulations to achieve selective drug release with a long-term goal of enhancing therapeutic outcomes and improve patients’ quality of life.

Selective delivery of chemotherapeutics to inhibit cancer by exploring targeted liposomal prodrug strategy

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.