Co-delivery system of chemotherapy drugs and active ingredients from natural plants: a brief overview of preclinical research for cancer treatment

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Many active ingredients from natural plants (AINPs) have been revealed to possess remarkable anticancer properties. Combination chemotherapy of chemo-drugs and AINPs has also proven to be more advantageous than individual chemo-drug treatment with respect to enhancing efficiency, alleviating toxicity, and controlling the development of multidrug resistance (MDR). Co-delivery is considered a promising method to effectively achieve and manage combination chemotherapy of chemo-drugs and AINPs, and various distinctive and functional co-delivery systems have been designed for these purposes to date.

Areas covered

This review focuses on recent preclinical investigations of co-delivery systems for chemo-drugs and AINPs as new cancer treatment modalities. We particularly emphasize the apparent treatment advantages of these approaches, including augmenting efficiency, reducing toxicity, and controlling MDR.

Expert opinion

There has already been notable progress in the application of combination chemotherapy with co-delivery systems loaded with chemo-drugs and AINPs based on results with cellular and animal models. The main challenge is to translate these successes into new anticancer compound preparations and promote their clinical application in practice. Nevertheless, continuous efforts with new designs of co-delivery systems remain essential, providing a foundation for future clinical research and development of new anticancer drugs.

KEYWORDS:

• Active ingredients of natural plants
• cancer treatment
• chemo-drug
• co-delivery

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 received an honorarium from Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery for their review work, but have no other relevant financial relationships to disclose

Article Highlights

• Active ingredients from natural plants (AINPs) are considered a treasure-house for the development of new antineoplastic drugs, and combination chemotherapy of chemo-drugs and AINPs holds promise.

• A co-delivery system is an efficient way to realize combination chemotherapy of chemo-drugs and AINPs, and there has been substantial progress in this regard for various types of cancers, including efficiency enhancement, toxicity reduction, and reversal of multidrug resistance (MDR).

• Diverse co-delivery systems have been designed and developed to better improve cancer treatments, such as pH-sensitive and targeted-release co-delivery systems.

• Several common preparation methods of co-delivery systems carrying chemo-drugs and AINPs are summarized.

• Issues on the combination ratios of chemo-drugs and AINPs, and the long-term safety of the entire co-delivery system require comprehensive research, which can promote the translation of preclinical research for the development of new anticancer compounds for clinical application.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Science and Technology Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Sichuan Province [No. 2017JQ0013], the Joint Fund of Luzhou City and Southwest Medical University [No. 2017LZXNYD-T02, 2019LZXNYDZ07], the Science and Technology Fund of Luzhou City [No. 2019-SYF-35], Science and Technology Innovation Team from Jiucheng Science and Technology Talent Cultivation Plan in Luzhou City [2019-1], the Scientific Research Foundation of the Education Department of Sichuan Province [No.17ZA0439, 18ZB0646], the research grant from Traditional Chinese Medicine Administration in Sichuan Province [No.2018QN069].