| Summary: | Sima Singh,1,* Niranjan G Kotla,2,* Sonia Tomar,3 Balaji Maddiboyina,4 Thomas J Webster,5,6 Dinesh Sharma,7 Omprakash Sunnapu2 1Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 2Technologies for the Advancement of Science, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore, Karnataka, 3Department of Pharmaceutics, Ram Gopal College of Pharmacy, Rohtak, Haryana, 4Department of Pharmaceutics, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, India; 5Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; 6Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 7Ranbaxy Laboratory Ltd, Gurgaon, Haryana, India *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Targeted drug delivery plays a significant role in disease treatment associated with the colon, affording therapeutic responses for a prolonged period of time with low side effects. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women with an estimated 102,480 cases of colon cancer and 40,340 cases of rectal cancer in 2013 as reported by the American Cancer Society. In the present investigation, we developed an improved oral delivery system for existing anticancer drugs meant for colon cancer via prebiotic and probiotic approaches. The system comprises three components, namely, nanoparticles of drug coated with natural materials such as guar gum, xanthan gum (that serve as prebiotics), and probiotics. The natural gums play a dual role of protecting the drug in the gastric as well as intestinal conditions to allow its release only in the colon. In vitro results obtained from these experiments indicated the successful targeted delivery of 5-fluorouracil to the colon. Electron microscopy results demonstrated that the prepared nanoparticles were spherical in shape and 200 nm in size. The in vitro release data indicated that the maximum release occurs at pH 7.2 and 7.4 with 93% of the drug released in the presence of 4% (w/v) of rat cecal content. In vivo results conclude a practical mechanism to maintain the integrity and intactness of the intestinal/colonic microflora, in the face of a “chemical attack” by oral colon-targeted drug delivery for colon cancer treatment. Keywords: colon-specific drug delivery system, polymeric nanoparticles, probiotics, 5-fluorouracil
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