title: Nanotechnology for delivery of gemcitabine to treat pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most deadly and quickly fatal human cancers with a 5-year mortality rate close to 100%. Its prognosis is very poor, mainly because of its hostile biological behavior and late onset of symptoms for clinical diagnosis; these bring limitations on therapeutic interventions. Factors contributing for the difficulties in treating PC include: high rate of drug resistance, fast metastasis to different organs, poor prognosis and relapse of the tumor after therapy. After being approved by US FDA 1997, Gemcitabine (Gem) is the first line and the gold standard drug for all stages of advanced PC till now. However, its efficacy is unsatisfactory, mainly due to; its chemical instability and poor cellular uptake, resulting in an extremely short half-life and low bioavailability. To solve this drawbacks and increase the therapeutic outcome important progress has been achieved in the field of nanotechnology and offers a promising and effective alternative. This review mainly focus on the most commonly investigated nanoparticle (NP) delivery systems of Gem for PC treatment and the latest progresses achieved. Novel nanocarriers with better tumor targeting efficiencies and maximum treatment outcome to treat this deadly due are given much attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, International Campus (TUMS-IC), Tehran, Iran; School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Gebremariam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Birhanu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid Akbari
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Javar
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: seyedjafari@ut.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seyedjafari
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zandi-Karimi
mesh_terms: D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000093542:Gemcitabine
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000093542:Gemcitabine
keywords: Drug delivery; Gemcitabine; Nanotechnology; Pancreatic cancer