Potential applications of drug delivery technologies against radiation enteritis

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The incidence of abdominal tumors, such as colorectal and prostate cancers, continually increases. Radiation therapy is widely applied in the clinical treatment of patients with abdominal/pelvic cancers, but it often unfortunately causes radiation enteritis (RE) involving the intestine, colon, and rectum. However, there is a lack of suitable treatment options for effective prevention and treatment of RE.

Areas covered

Conventional clinical drugs for preventing and treating RE are usually applied by enemas and oral administration. Innovative gut-targeted drug delivery systems including hydrogels, microspheres, and nanoparticles are proposed to improve the prevention and curation of RE.

Expert opinion

The prevention and treatment of RE have not attracted sufficient attention in the clinical practice, especially compared to the treatment of tumors, although RE takes patients great pains. Drug delivery to the pathological sites of RE is a huge challenge. The short retention and weak targeting of conventional drug delivery systems affect the therapeutic efficiency of anti-RE drugs. Novel drug delivery systems including hydrogels, microspheres, and nanoparticles can allow drugs long-term retention in the gut and targeting the inflammation sites to alleviate radiation-induced injury.

KEYWORDS:

• Drug delivery
• ionizing radiation
• hydrogel
• microsphere
• nanoparticle
• radiation enteritis

Article highlights

• Radiation therapy is widely applied in the clinical treatment of patients with abdominal cancers, but it often causes radiation enteritis. There is a lack of suitable treatment options to enable effective prevention and treatment of radiation enteritis.

• Drug delivery to the inflamed gut presents challenges, involving safe transit through the stomach, long retention in the intestine, and targeting the gut mucosa.

• Conventional clinical drugs for preventing and treating radiation enteritis are usually applied by enemas and oral administration.

• Novel gut-targeted drug delivery systems, including hydrogels, microspheres, and nanoparticles, can allow drugs long-term retention in the gut and target the inflammation sites to alleviate radiation-induced injury.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.