Michele Caraglia, Monica Marra, Gabriella Misso, Monica Lamberti, Giuseppina Salzano, Giuseppe De Rosa, Alberto Abbruzzese
A challenge of anti-cancer treatment is the specific delivery of the drugs in order to avoid deleterious effects on normal cells. In fact, anti-cancer drugs have potent effects also on normal cells due to the strong similarity of the mechanisms of growth regulation of normal cells if compared to their transformed counterparts. The recent developments in nanotechnology allow the old Ehrlich's dream to deliver anti-cancer drugs in tumour tissue through their encapsulation in drug delivery systems (DDS). In the present review we analyze the different reasons to encapsulate an anti-tumour drug in DDS including eventual damages induced by their extravasation or by eccipients used to their solubilisation, the rapid break-down of the drug in vivo and the specific bio-distribution of the drug in tumour tissues...
January 2012: Current Drug Metabolism