Formulation and Characterization of Biodegradable Drug Delivery Systems for Targeted Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Biodegradable drug delivery system (DDS) is a new technology that gives a great advantage to targeted cancer treatment and refers to remarkable advances in drug potency, patient acceptability and safety. Such systems will be employed to administer directly to cancer cells an agent, which provides a therapeutic effect and over all having lower off-target effects as well as toxicity to healthy cells. This review pays particular attention to the design and development of biodegradable DDS to target cancer therapy with emphasis on choosing materials, drug entrapment methodologies and release rates in designing efficient therapies. The most widely used are the biodegradable polymer types including poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and chitosan because of their biocompatibility and the likelihood of their degradation products to be non-toxic. Further, methods of cancer cell targeting involving surface modification, including ligands, antibodies and peptides, are also discussed. The paper addresses strengths and limitations of these systems in cancer treatment such as the effectiveness of these systems to boost therapeutic results and lessen side-effects. Characterization methods have also been discussed in the review in detail comprising particle size analysis, drug loading efficiency, drug release profiles, in vitro and in vivo testing of drug delivery gears. Lastly, the paper points out the prospective areas and possible clinical utilizations of biodegradable DDS on individualized cancer treatment.