Nanoparticle delivery of natural products for the treatment of lung cancer

Title : Nanoparticle delivery of natural products for the treatment of lung cancer

Abstract:

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 8.8 million deaths, with lung cancer attributing to 1.69million of these deaths in 2015. The application of natural products to treat various diseases, such as cancer, has been an important area of research for many years. Several phytochemicals have demonstrated anitcarcinogenic activity to prevent or reduce the progression of cancer by modulating various cellular mechanisms. For example, phenolic compounds such as Curcumin and resveratrol have been shown to be a potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative activity.
         One of the major problems is that cancer cells develop resistance to exisiting chemotherapy drugs either intrinsically (genetic mutation) or over time leading to multiple drug resistance (MDR) which leads to patient relapse and poor prognosis. Plant derived polyphenolics genistein and kaempferol are compounds with proven biochemical and pharmacological properties and have recently been found to modulate the ABC transporters responsible for cancer drug resistance including P-gp and multidrug resistance associated protein (MRCP1). Although these natural products shows great promise in the prevention and treatment of cancer, they also show low bioavailability which can be overcome by using polymeric nanoparticles to deliver them directly to lung cancer cells. Nanoparticle-mediated lung delivery can also overcome the problem of non-specific targeting/distribution of the anticancer agent and reduce side effects.
          The research presented in this talk will demonstrate the applicability of natural products in the fight against cancer and also the design of novel delivery systems to target the lungs.
Audience take away:
• An understanding of lung cancer and current therapies
• An introduction to the use of natural products in medicine
• Methods for the formulation of nanoparticles
• Aspects of pulmonary delivery of dry powders

Biography:

Gillian Hutcheon graduated from Strathclyde University, Scotland in 1996 with a PhD thesis on Biocatalysts is non-aqueous media. She then undertook postdoctoral research at Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham investigating Protein: Biomaterial interactions. She joined Liverpool John Moores University in 1999 as a lecturer in Organic Chemistry and leads the Formulation and Drug Delivery Research Group. She has evolved her interest in proteins and biomaterials towards drug delivery applications looking at the enzyme catalysed synthesis of novel materials for micro and nanoparticle delivery of small molecule drugs and biomolecules. In 2008 she was conferred as a Reader in Biomaterials and she is currently Head of the LJMU Institute for Health Research.