The research has been jointly funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Indian Government and IIT Mandi Source: Wikimedia Commons
A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi have come up with natural polymer-based smart nanoparticles to treat colorectal cancer. According to the researchers, these nanoparticles release the drug in response to stimuli that are specific to cancer sites only.
The research has been led by Garima Agrawal and co-authored by her students, Ankur Sood and Aastha Gupta from IIT Mandi, and Professor Neal Silverman along with his team from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
The research has been jointly funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board of the Indian Government and IIT Mandi.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and the second most common in women worldwide. It accounts for 8% of all cancer deaths making it the fourth most common cause of death due to cancer across the world.
“The designed system should be capable of supporting drugs having different solubility in water. In this regard, the simplest approach that we followed for developing biodegradable nanoparticles is using chitosan, which is a naturally derived polymer, in combination with disulfide chemistry.”, stated Garima Agrawal, assistant professor at the School of Basic Sciences.
Additionally, the newly identified nanoparticles remain stable in normal conditions but break down at tumour sites when cancer cells are present to stimulate redox reactions.
The institute commented on the study and stated, “IIT Mandi researchers have developed redox responsive chitosan/stearic acid nanoparticles (CSSA NPs) as drug carriers for both curcumin (hydrophobic; a component from turmeric that is used daily in food) and doxorubicin (hydrophilic) drugs delivery targeting colorectal Cancer”.
“This approach of combining anticancer drugs having a different mode of anticancer action allows to develop the systems for cancer therapy with enhanced efficacy,” it added.
The findings of the research have been published in the Journal Carbohydrate Polymers