Integrated Research Advances
Keywords: item categories
Prostate cancer (PC) is the most prevalent cancer among men and ranks as the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Despite significant progress in the detection and localized treatment of prostate cancer, between 23% and 40% of patients may eventually develop metastatic disease. Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) occurs when tumor growth becomes resistant to hormone therapy in an environment with low androgen levels. The androgen receptor (AR) has been identified as a critical target for therapeutic intervention in metastatic prostate cancer. The current pharmacological management of CRPC includes approved medications such as Enzalutamide, Docetaxel, Abiraterone acetate, and Cabazitaxel. However, many of these orally administered drugs suffer from issues such as low bioavailability, poor aqueous solubility, inadequate permeability, rapid clearance, drug resistance, and suboptimal concentrations at the site of absorption. To address these challenges, we have developed injectable elastin nanogel (ENG) loaded with Enzalutamide and Decursin (Combo) using the inverse-mini emulsion technique, characterized by SEM, FTIR, and drug release studies aimed at overcoming CRPC and enhancing survival benefits through targeted pathway-specific therapies. Our ENG, derived from a natural protein biopolymer, has unique properties that offer promising applications in biomedicine such as biocompatibility, target specific pH responsive, non-toxic, non-inflammatory, and non-immunogenic characteristics, making them suitable for CRPC treatment. Our ENG-based drug delivery system demonstrated no toxicity in the observed concentration in zebrafish embryos, prolonged circulation times, and improved targeting of tumor sites, potentially regressing in mouse prostate xenograft models. We anticipate that our ENG will serve as a cost-effective injectable drug delivery system for cancers.
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