Curcumin has received immense attention over the past decades because of its diverse biological activities and recognized as a promising drug candidate in a large number of diseases. However, its clinical application has been hindered due to extremely low aqueous solubility, chemical stability, and cellular uptake. In this study, we discovered quite a new function of curcumin, i.e. pH-responsive endosomal disrupting activity, derived from curcumin’s self-assembly. We selected anticancer activity as an example of biological activities of curcumin, and investigated the contribution of pH-responsive property to its anticancer activity. As a result, we demonstrated that the pH-responsive property significantly enhances the anticancer activity of curcumin. Furthermore, we demonstrated a utility of the pH-responsive property of curcumin as delivery nanocarriers for doxorubicin toward combination cancer therapy. These results clearly indicate that the smart curcumin assemblies act as promising nanoplatform for development of curcumin-based therapeutics.

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The purpose of this study was to fabricate a safe and effective doxorubicin (DOX)-delivery system for focal cancer chemotherapy. A novel biodegradable injectable gel was developed through self-assembly of poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide)-b-poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA-PEG-PLGA) copolymer micelles, clay nanodisks (CNDs), and DOX. We discovered that DOX loaded in the hybrid gels acts as an anticancer drug and as a building block to organize new gel networks. Accordingly, long-term sustained release of DOX from hybrid injectable gels without initial burst release was achieved. Moreover, it was revealed that the DOX incorporated into gel networks controls its own release profile. This hybrid injectable gel is a self-controlled drug release system, which is a novel concept in controlled drug release. Importantly, a single injection of PLGA-PEG-PLGA/CND/DOX hybrid gel provides long-term sustained antitumor activity in vivo against human xenograft tumors in mice, suggesting the potential of hybrid gels as a valuable local DOX-delivery platform for cancer focal therapy.

The monkey is often used to predict metabolism of drugs in humans since it generally shows a metabolic pattern similar to humans. However, metabolic profiles different from humans are occasionally seen in monkeys for some drugs including pitavastatin. Recently, we have successfully identified a monkey-specific cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C76, which possibly accounts for a species difference between monkeys and humans because of its sequence and functional uniqueness. The present study on the role of CYP2C76 and other monkey CYP2Cs in pitavastatin metabolism, as an example, has revealed that CYP2C76 is important for the metabolism of the lactone form, indicating a major role of CYP2C76 for the difference in the metabolism of pitavastatin and possibly other drugs between monkeys and humans. The current investigation on the involvement of CYP2C76 in the metabolism of other drugs is expected to reveal further the further importance of this monkey-specific drug-metabolizing enzyme.

ABSTRACT:The monkey CYP2C76 gene does not correspond to any of the human CYP2C genes, and its enzyme is at least partly responsible for the species difference occasionally seen in drug metabolism between monkeys and humans. To establish a line and/or lines of monkeys that are expected to show metabolic patterns highly similar to humans, we set out to find monkeys that lacked CYP2C76 activity. By genetic screening of 73 monkeys and a database search of expressed sequence tags, we found a total of 10 nonsynonymous genetic variants in the coding region of CYP2C76, including a null genotype (c.449TG>A). Some of the variants were differently distributed between two animal groups originating from different geographical regions (Indochina and Indonesia). After screening 170 additional genomic samples, we identified a total of eight animals (six males and two females) that were heterozygous for c.449TG>A, which could be used for establishing a homozygous line. If the homozygotes show drug-metabolizing properties more similar to humans than wild-type monkeys, the homozygotes may serve as a better animal model for drug metabolism. The data presented in this article provide the essential genetic information to perform a successful study by using cynomolgus monkeys and present a possible tool to generate a better animal model for drug metabolism.