May 20th, 2015

The nano-micelles were produced from commercial raw materials through a relatively simple and cost-effective method.
Cisplatin is one of the most common drugs in cancer treatment. The drug is used in the treatment of advanced testicular cancer, advanced ovarian cancer, bladder, head, neck and lungs cancers. However, there are some problems in the application of cisplatin and its derivatives (like oxaliplatin and carboplatin), including very low solubility at biological media, large side effects and non-selective performance when they deal with normal and cancerous cells. The aim of the research was to overcome the problems by using smart nano drug delivery systems.
In this research, a relatively simple synthetic method was used to produce polymeric micelle by application of raw materials that are all commercially available.
The design of the new nanodrug prevents very much the harmful effects of the drug on healthy tissues of the body. In addition, cancer cell exclusive guiding ligand, which is folic acid, has been used on the surface of the nanodrug so that the produced nanodrug can accumulate in the tumor tissue and in cancerous cells as fast as possible.
Very promising results have been obtained for these multi-functional nano-micelles, and it is predicted that the nanodrug can be produced after carrying out further in-vivo studies at various phases. Therefore, the use of new generation of carriers in chemotherapy decreases side effects of anticancer drugs while it increases their effectiveness.