Browsing by Author "Pissarra, Helena Carina Canhoto de Andrade"
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- Development of intelligent vehicles for delivery of anti-tumoral drugsPublication . Pissarra, Helena Carina Canhoto de Andrade; Correia, Ilídio Joaquim SobreiraThe female reproductive system is essential for the maintenance of the human species. However, it can be affected by several diseases such as ovarian cysts or cancer, pelvic infection, cervical cancer, cervical cysts and polyps, endometrial cancer, endometriosis, endometrial polyps, hyperplasia and fibroids, tipped uterus, prolapsed uterus and breast cancer, which can lead to infertility problems or patient death. Cervical cancer remains as one of the leading causes of women’s death worldwide, and it does not present any signs or symptoms. It has been intimately related whit Human Papilloma Virus duo to the genetic mutations that this virus can cause, when it enters in the cervical cells. For the treatment of cervical cancer surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, alone or combined can be used. Chemotherapy use different drugs as therapeutic agents and the most used in cervical cancer are cisplatin, ifosfamide, paclitaxel, irinotecan and gemcitabine. These drugs can be administered either orally or intravenously. The lack of specificity of these chemotherapeutics agents avoids their accumulation at the target tissue and allows its spreading along the body causing side effects in the healthy tissues. In an attempt to minimize side effects and improve the efficacy of the currently available treatments, new therapeutic approaches are currently being developed. New drug delivery systems are currently being developed to allow the transport of a therapeutic substance through the body and a sustained drug release at the target tissue. Among the different drug delivery systems, nanoparticles are the most used due to their higher capacity to be internalizing by cells and release the drug that they transport inside them. There are several types of nanoparticles that belong to two main groups: organic and inorganic. The magnetic nanoparticles constitute the larger group of inorganic nanoparticles, whereas liposomes, dendrimers and polymeric nanoparticles belong to the organic group. The objective of the present work was to produce polymeric poly-ε-caprolactone/poly-methyl methacrylate nanoparticles with a sustained drug release to be used for cancer treatment. The produced nanoparticles were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. Moreover, Cisplatin was used as model drug for the characterization of the loading and release profiles of these nanocarriers, as well as to evaluate the therapeutic potential of the produced system. In addition the in vitro studies were performed to evaluate the cellular internalization and biocompatibility of the produced nanocarriers, and also characterize the release profile and therapeutic efficacy of the loaded drug to cancer cells. The results obtained, suggest that the produce nanosystem has suitable properties to be used as a drug delivery system for cancer therapy.