Abstract
Cisplatin is used for the standard treatment for lung cancer, stomach cancer, and urothelial cancer. However, it is necessary to discontinue treatment with cisplatin due to its adverse effects such as nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity. In order to reduce the toxicity and increase the efficacy, increasing intra-tumoural cisplatin levels using drug delivery system is seemed to be the valuable approarch. NC-6004 was designed as a novel delivery system of cisplatin by Kataoka. It retains the activity, but avoids the nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity observed with cisplatin. Phase I study of NC-6004 in patients with advanced cancer was conducted in UK.
Epirubicin was used for the pH-sensitive micelle as same as doxorubicin conjugated type invented by Kataoka. Antitumor effect of pH-sensitive epirubicin micelle was superior to epirubicin solution in vivo animal model.
Many protein drugs such as interferon, interleukin, granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and growth factor need to have stability in the bloodstream in order to have therapeutic efficacy. The protein micelle system was established using block-copolymer modification techniques. G-CSF micelle showed the sustained release property as same as PEGylated G-CSF. It seems that protein micelle technology is suitable for the bio-similar drugs and the protein having short half-life in blood.
