Miguel Rodrigo Dos A, Hirata Amanda S, Jimenez Paula C, Lopes Luciana B, Costa-Lotufo Leticia V
Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 05508-000, Brazil.
Institute of the Sea, Federal University of Sao Paulo, Santos 11070-100, Brazil.
Pharmaceutics. 2022 Aug 17;14(8):1722. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14081722.
Nature is the largest pharmacy in the world. Doxorubicin (DOX) and paclitaxel (PTX) are two examples of natural-product-derived drugs employed as first-line treatment of various cancer types due to their broad mechanisms of action. These drugs are marketed as conventional and nanotechnology-based formulations, which is quite curious since the research and development (R&D) course of nanoformulations are even more expensive and prone to failure than the conventional ones. Nonetheless, nanosystems are cost-effective and represent both novel and safer dosage forms with fewer side effects due to modification of pharmacokinetic properties and tissue targeting. In addition, nanotechnology-based drugs can contribute to dose modulation, reversion of multidrug resistance, and protection from degradation and early clearance; can influence the mechanism of action; and can enable drug administration by alternative routes and co-encapsulation of multiple active agents for combined chemotherapy. In this review, we discuss the contribution of nanotechnology as an enabling technology taking the clinical use of DOX and PTX as examples. We also present other nanoformulations approved for clinical practice containing different anticancer natural-product-derived drugs.
大自然是世界上最大的药房。阿霉素（DOX）和紫杉醇（PTX）是两种源自天然产物的药物，由于其广泛的作用机制，被用作多种癌症类型的一线治疗药物。这些药物以传统剂型和基于纳米技术的剂型销售，这相当令人好奇，因为纳米制剂的研发过程比传统制剂更加昂贵且更容易失败。尽管如此，纳米系统具有成本效益，并且由于药代动力学性质的改变和组织靶向性，代表了新型且更安全的剂型，副作用更少。此外，基于纳米技术的药物有助于剂量调节、逆转多药耐药性以及防止降解和早期清除；可以影响作用机制；并且可以通过替代途径给药以及将多种活性剂共包封以进行联合化疗。在本综述中，我们以DOX和PTX的临床应用为例，讨论纳米技术作为一种使能技术的贡献。我们还介绍了其他已批准用于临床实践的纳米制剂，这些制剂含有不同的源自天然产物的抗癌药物。
