LUNG CANCER THERAPY USING NATURALLY OCCURRING PRODUCTS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
SYED SAIF IMAM, SYEDA TUBA IMAM, Smriti Agarwal, RISHABH KUMAR, MD YUSUF AMMAR, MD WASIF ATHAR, ARBAZ AKHTAR
Abstract
Lung cancer is a severe type of cancer with highest mortality rate among all cancers. Natural products such as theaflavins, quercetin, arctigenin, EGCG, curcumin, and cinnamaldehyde are quite capable anti-inflammatory and anti-cancerous agents which are able to suppress ERK-MAPK, JAK-STAT, p38, AMPK, PI3K/Akt, MAPK, mTOR, STAT3, and Wnt/β-catenin signal transduction pathways. These APIs inhibit the inflammatory and proliferator enzymes such as COX-2, caspase-3, MMP-9, MMP-2, NF-κB, p53, Bcl-xL, Bcl-2,Mcl-1, miR-210, cyclin D1, iNOS, IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-1α. All the above properties clearly show the anti-cancerous potential, but the problems arise because of their instability at gastrointestinal tract pH. All the compounds either degrade at gastric pH or loss their cancerous potential. New generation nanoparticles such as transferosomes are quite stable at 7.4 pH and its efficacy and drug entrapment potential are better than other conventional nanoparticle systems. If these APIs are added inside the nanovesicular structure of transferosomes and then loaded in pMDI canisters such as fluorocarbon polymerization (FCP), plasma-coated canisters with a better propellant such as HFA-134a and delivered with the help of spacers can cure lungs cancer economically, efficiently with minimal side effects and it also ensures that the cancer will not reoccur.