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Nanobiotechnology 2018
Page 25
Nano Research & Applications
ISSN: 2471-9838
E u r o S c i C o n C o n f e r e n c e o n
Nanotech & Nanobiotechnology
J u l y 1 2 - 1 3 , 2 0 1 8
P a r i s , F r a n c e
D
espitecurrent advances incancer therapy, cancer continues tobe thesecond
leading cause of mortality worldwide. The increasing cancer death rate
and the rapid emergence of chemotherapy resistance necessitate the need to
adopt new approaches for the discovery of novel anticancer agents. Therefore,
a growing interest is heading towards ‘safe’ and widely available molecules,
prominently from natural plant sources that have anticancer activities against
human cancer cells with minimal toxicity to normal ones. Nanotechnology has
played a role in overcoming the challenges of anticancer drug delivery, namely
poor solubility and stability, undesirable cytotoxicity, rapid drug metabolism
and non-specific drug targeting. This paper focuses on the future potential of
clinical translation of plant-derived compounds with focus on the black seed
active ingredient Thymoquinone (TQ), a promising anticancer molecule shown
to inhibit cancer growth and progression in numerous systems both
in vitro
and
in vivo
. What makes TQ interesting is its efficacy and selectivity against cancer
cells and lack of toxicity to normal tissues. In spite of the promising anticancer
activities of TQ, the main limitation for its clinical translation lies in its
hydrophobicity, poor bioavailability, limited solubility and high capacity to bind
to plasma proteins. This can prevent TQ from reaching its targeted tumor sites.
Several TQ-nanoparticle (TQ-NP) formulations have been tested and found to
have enhanced anticancer and anti-inflammatory effects in comparison to
free TQ. Our recent work presented evidence on a novel TQ formulation having
improved activity and enhanced delivery in breast cancer. We showed that the
efficacy of the TQ-NP formulations depends on the time for drug uptake, drug
concentrations, route of entry and trafficking and cellular interactions. I will
provide an overview of the various TQ-NP formulations, their characteristics
and applications summarize limitations for developing biologically successful
TQ-NP models and discuss up-to-date solutions to improve TQ bioavailability
and anticancer potential for cancer therapy.
Biography
Hala Muhtasib is Professor of Cell Biology at the American
University of Beirut. She received her PhD from Kansas State
University, USA in 1990. Her research interests are in Cancer
Chemotherapy and Anticancer mechanisms of plant-derived
compounds. She has over 90 publications in peer-reviewed
journals and is the recipient of four research achievement
awards.
amro@aub.edu.lbFuture of nanoscience in natural product drug discovery:
applications in thymoquinone-based nanoformulations
Hala Gali-Muhtasib, Zeina Habli and Farah Ballout
American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Hala Gali-Muhtasib et al., Nano Res Appl 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.21767/2471-9838-C2-011