Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine, Beijing, China.
Expert Opin Drug Deliv. 2023 Apr;20(4):435-455. doi: 10.1080/17425247.2023.2183948. Epub 2023 Feb 28.
The incidence of abdominal tumors, such as colorectal and prostate cancers, continually increases. Radiation therapy is widely applied in the clinical treatment of patients with abdominal/pelvic cancers, but it often unfortunately causes radiation enteritis (RE) involving the intestine, colon, and rectum. However, there is a lack of suitable treatment options for effective prevention and treatment of RE.
Conventional clinical drugs for preventing and treating RE are usually applied by enemas and oral administration. Innovative gut-targeted drug delivery systems including hydrogels, microspheres, and nanoparticles are proposed to improve the prevention and curation of RE.
The prevention and treatment of RE have not attracted sufficient attention in the clinical practice, especially compared to the treatment of tumors, although RE takes patients great pains. Drug delivery to the pathological sites of RE is a huge challenge. The short retention and weak targeting of conventional drug delivery systems affect the therapeutic efficiency of anti-RE drugs. Novel drug delivery systems including hydrogels, microspheres, and nanoparticles can allow drugs long-term retention in the gut and targeting the inflammation sites to alleviate radiation-induced injury.
腹部肿瘤（如结直肠癌和前列腺癌）的发病率不断上升。放射疗法广泛应用于腹部/盆腔癌症患者的临床治疗，但不幸的是，它经常导致涉及肠、结肠和直肠的放射性肠炎（RE）。然而，对于 RE 的有效预防和治疗，缺乏合适的治疗选择。
预防和治疗 RE 的常规临床药物通常通过灌肠和口服给药。创新性的肠道靶向药物传递系统，包括水凝胶、微球和纳米颗粒，被提出用于改善 RE 的预防和治疗。
RE 的预防和治疗在临床实践中尚未引起足够重视，特别是与肿瘤治疗相比，尽管 RE 给患者带来了极大的痛苦。药物传递到 RE 的病变部位是一个巨大的挑战。传统药物传递系统的短保留时间和弱靶向性会影响抗 RE 药物的治疗效果。包括水凝胶、微球和纳米颗粒在内的新型药物传递系统可以使药物在肠道内长时间保留并靶向炎症部位，从而减轻辐射引起的损伤。
