Drug Encapsulation

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women, and chemotherapy is widely​ used to treat it. However, chemotherapy drugs are not able to differentiate between the cancerous and healthy tissues. This leads to the well-known, harmful side effects of this treatment, which include hair loss, fatigue, nausea, and a weakened immune system. This paper argues for the potential effectiveness of delivering chemotherapy drugs to tumors in protective barriers (drug encapsulation in a nano-carrier) that isolate the drug from healthy tissues, minimizing side effects and increasing the quality of life of patients and their families. When injected into the bloodstream, these nanocarriers will diffuse into the tumor and ultrasonic waves can then be administered at the tumor site in order to release the chemotherapy drug from its capsule. This will restrict the drug to the physical location of the cancerous cells. This policy paper offers a number of recommendations related to furthering cancer research in the UAE and Gulf region for the benefit of citizens, residents, and those impacted by breast cancer around the world.

Keywords: poly[ε-caprolactone-co-(12-hydroxystearate)] biocatalysis hydrolases sorafenib nanoparticles drug delivery A B S T R A C T Nanoformulations can play an important role in the improvement of anticancer drug therapies. The bioavail-ability of sorafenib, which is the exclusively applied drug in the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular car-cinoma, may be increased by its incorporation in a biocompatible nanoparticulate matrix that is capable of targeting and controlling the drug release. The copolymers of ε-caprolactone are emerging biodegradable compounds for drug delivery applications. In this work, an immobilized lipase and three native hydrolases, a lipase, an esterase and a protease (two of them not previously used as polyesterification catalysts) have been studied as biocatalysts for the synthesis of oligomers of ε-caprolactone and 12-hydroxystearic acid, proving different selectivity regarding the polymerization degree, ratio of linear and cyclic oligomers, and insertion of the fatty acid units in the polymeric chain. The synthesized poly[ε-caprolactone-co-(12-hydroxystearate)] was used as a novel encapsulating copolymer for preparation of sorafenib-loaded polymeric nanocomposites. The nanoparticle formulation by emulsion-solvent evaporation method was optimized for particle size and en-capsulation efficiency. The developed nanotherapeutics showed promising drug release profile and cytotoxic effect in vitro in HepG2 hepatocellular cells.