A multiscale approach to targeted docetaxel formulations: combination therapy, nanotechnology, electrospinning and 3D printing—a review

Abstract

Background Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Docetaxel, first marketed as ‘Taxotere’, has been approved for use as a chemotherapeutic for management of gastric, breast, neck, head, non-small cell lung cancer and prostate cancer. Main body Taxotere, is a docetaxel formulation solubilized in tween 80 and 13% ethanol solution. It is effective as a chemotherapeutic agent but has numerous toxic effects due to the ethanol and polysorbate. Aside from this, challenges with administration during mixing of the docetaxel with the diluent exist. Poor mixing results in gel formation while addition of the drug mix to an infusion may result in micelle formation. These challenges have necessitated remodeling of the currently available docetaxel formulation, but none has made it to clinical setting as an alternative. Efforts have also been made to develop oral docetaxel formulation to ease administration of the drug. Attempts have also been made to develop other dosage forms, notably transdermal formulations and implants to target cancer cells while avoiding systemic side effects. Formulation methods such as nanoformulation, drug coupling with other active moieties, 3D fabrication as well as electrospinning have been employed. Conclusions Development of novel formulations of docetaxel for different chemotherapeutic needs appears promising with some formulations currently in clinical trials. Exploring other drug formulation techniques such as the use of 2D LDH may produce novel anticancer formulations in the future.

A graphSAGE discovers synergistic combinations of Gefitinib, paclitaxel, and Icotinib for Lung adenocarcinoma management by targeting human genes and proteins: the RAIN protocol

“…Docetaxel, when used in combination with other chemotherapy drugs, improved survival rate rates among individuals diagnosed with advanced adenocarcinoma of the lungs. 247 Immunotherapy:…”

A review of FDA approved drugs and their formulations for the treatment of breast cancer

“…Those lying between this size range are considered to be most appropriate for cancer treatment (Smith et al, 2012;Jaiswal and Dudhe, 2015;Han et al, 2021). Nanoparticles can be classified into various types including metallic nanoparticles (Subhan, 2022), polymeric nanoparticles (Sartaj et al, 2021), solid lipid nanoparticles (Ashtari et al, 2020;Ozgenc et al, 2022), and fullerenes. The characterization of nanoparticles for drug release and drug targeting primarily depends on the evaluation of particle size and morphology (Song et al, 2020).…”

“…As a result the advantages of polymeric micelles as a delivery vehicle are two fold wherein, the hydrophobic core of the micelle assists in solubilization of poorly soluble drugs and the hydrophilic shell provides some protection in minimizing opsonin adsorption, longer blood circulation time to polymeric micelles and better blood stability. Owing to their smaller size polymeric micelles get concealed from scavenging by the mononuclear phagocytic system in the liver and circumvent the filtration of inter-endothelial cells in the spleen, contributing towards longer blood circulation time (Bhatia, 2016;Migotto et al, 2018;Ozgenc et al, 2022).…”

“…TAXOL (paclitaxel) is obtained via a semi-synthetic process from Taxus Baccata. Paclitaxel is a white to off-white crystalline powder that is highly lipophilic, insoluble in water, and melts at around 216-217 °C (Oyediran et al, 2022).it is widely used clinically for the treatment of various types of tumors such as breast (Patel, 1996)., pancreatic, cervical, ovarian, etc. Paclitaxel has been utilized in combination therapy with other drugs, or it is also considered as a first line.…”