Current Researches on Nanodrug Delivery Systems in Bladder Cancer Intravesical Chemotherapy

Drug-Loaded Mitochondrial Targeted Nanoparticles for Tumor Imaging and PDT/PTT Combined Chemotherapy in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical cystectomy is the standard treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). While cisplatin-based regimens reduce postoperative recurrence, their severe toxicity often limits clinical application. Moreover, the need for urinary diversion after radical cystectomy significantly impacts quality of life, leading to reluctance toward surgery. Therefore, developing tumor-targeted therapies and alternative treatment strategies for MIBC is of great clinical significance. In this study, the IR780 iodide multifunctional dye is conjugated to alginate polysaccharide and developed a novel cisplatin-loaded nanoparticle. Then, the tumor targeting and antitumor effects of the nanoparticles are evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The results show that the nanoparticles have sufficient drug loading, enhanced tumor targeting, and good photothermal effect. Furthermore, they shows potential for tumor imaging and diagnostic applications in a mouse model of MIBC. This study proposes a potentially effective treatment for MIBC by combining near-infrared localized phototherapy with systemic chemotherapy to eliminate malignant tissue.

A Comprehensive Review of Current Approaches in Bladder Cancer Treatment

Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the urinary system globally. It is also one of the most expensive cancers to manage, due to the need for extensive treatment and follow-ups that often involve invasive and costly procedures. Although there have been some improvements in treatment options, the quality of life they offer has not improved at the same rate as other cancers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find new alternatives to ease the burden of bladder cancer on patients. Recent discoveries have opened new avenues for the diagnosis and management of bladder cancer even though the clinical approach has largely remained the same for years. The decline in bladder cancer-specific mortality in regions that promote social awareness of risk factors and reduction of carcinogenic exposure demonstrates the effectiveness of such measures. New agents have been approved for patients who have undergone radical cystectomy after Bacillus Calmette-Guérin failure. Current best practices for diagnosing and treating bladder cancer are presented in this review. The review discusses radiation therapy, photodynamic therapy, gene therapy, chemotherapy, and nanomedicine in relation to non muscle-invasive cancers and muscle-invasive bladder cancers, as well as systemic treatments.

Unveiling FDA-approved Drugs and Formulations in the Management of Bladder Cancer: A Review

Urological cancers are one of the most prevalent malignancies around the globe. Specifically, bladder cancer severely threatens the health of humans because of its heterogeneous and aggressive nature. Extensive studies have been conducted for many years in order to address the limitations associated with the treatment of solid tumors with selective substances. This article aims to provide a summary of the therapeutic drugs that have received FDA approval or are presently in the testing phase for use in the prevention or treatment of bladder cancer. In this review, FDA-approved drugs for bladder cancer treatment have been listed along with their dose protocols, current status, pharmacokinetics, action mechanisms, and marketed products. The article also emphasizes the novel preparations of these drugs that are presently under clinical trials or are in the approval stage. Thus, this review will serve as a single point of reference for scientists involved in the formulation development of these drugs.

Mapping global research landscape and trend of nano-drug delivery system for urological cancers: a bibliometric analysis

Aim: We conducted a bibliometric analysis to quantitatively study the development pathway, research hotspots and evolutionary trends of nano-drug delivery systems (NDDS) in treating urological tumors.Materials & methods: We used the Web of Science Core Collection to retrieve the literature related to NDDS in the urological tumors up to November 1, 2023. Bibliometric analysis and visualization were conducted using CiteSpace, VOSviewer and R-Bibliometrix. The major aspects of analysis included contributions from different countries/regions, authors' contributions, keywords identification, citation frequencies and overall research trends.Results: We included 3,220 articles. The analysis of annual publication trends revealed significant growth in this field since 2010, which has continued to the present day. The United States and China have far exceeded other countries/regions in the publication volume of papers in this field. The progression of the shell structure of NDDS in the urinary system has gradually transitioned from non-biological materials to biocompatible materials and ultimately to completely biocompatible materials. Mucoadhesive NDDS for intravesical drug delivery is a hotspot and a potential research material for bladder cancer.Conclusion: The field of NDDS in urological tumors has emerged as a research hotspot. Future research should focus on synergistic effects of NDDS with other treatment modalities.

Potential bladder cancer therapeutic delivery systems: a recent update

INTRODUCTION

Bladder Cancer is one of the most expensive cancers to treat due to its high cost of therapy as well as the surveillance expenses incurred to prevent disease recurrence and progression. Thus, there is a strong need to develop safe, efficacious drug formulations with controlled drug release profiles and tumor-targeting potential, for improved therapeutic outcomes of bladder cancer patients.

AREAS COVERED

This review aims to provide an overview of drug formulations that have been studied for potential bladder cancer treatment in the last decade; highlight recent trends in bladder cancer treatment; mention ongoing clinical trials on bladder cancer chemotherapy; detail recently FDA-approved drug products for bladder cancer treatment and identify constraints that have prevented the translation of promising drug formulations from the research laboratory to the clinics.

EXPERT OPINION

This work revealed that surface functionalization of particulate drug delivery systems and incorporating the nanoparticles into in situ gelling systems could facilitate controlled drug release for extended periods, and improve the prognosis of bladder cancer treatment. Future research directions could incorporate multiple drugs into the drug delivery systems to treat advanced stages of the disease. In addition, smart nanomaterials, including photothermal therapies, could be exploited to improve the therapeutic outcomes of bladder cancer patients.

Encapsulation of hydroxycamptothecin within porous and hollow poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) microspheres as a floating delivery system for intravesical instillation

Intravesical instillation is an effective post-treatment for bladder cancer performed by delivering medications directly into the bladder to target the remaining cancer cells. The current study thus aimed to develop porous poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL) microspheres encapsulated with 10-hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) via microfluidics to serve as a drug delivery system with persistent floating capacity and sustained HCPT-release property for intravesical instillation. A microfluidic device was designed to fabricate PLCL microspheres and encapsulate HCPT (HCPT-MS) within them; methanol and tridecane were introduced into an oil phase as a co-solvent and pore-forming agent, respectively, to regulate the floating ability of microspheres. The physicochemical properties of the resulting microspheres were characterized, and the floating behavior, release profile and anti-tumor effects of HCPT-MS were investigated. The obtained spherical HCPT-MS were 119.23 μm in size, monodisperse, and featured a porous concave surface and hollow structure. The encapsulation efficiency and drug loading of HCPT within HCPT-MS was around 67% and 4.9%, respectively. HCPT-MS exhibited impressive floating capabilities in water, PBS and artificial urine even in a simulated bladder dynamic environment. These microspheres remained afloat after being subjected to 90 repeated simulated urination processes. The sustained release of HCPT from these floating microspheres lasted for more than 10 days. The IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) of HCPT-MS was calculated to be 52.14 μg mL-1. T24 cells (human bladder cancer cells) when cultured with HCPT-MS at such a concentration were severely inhibited, and the inhibition further enhanced with an increase in culture time. Hence, the feasibility of the current porous and floating HCPT-MS as a formulation for intravesical instillation to deliver medications into the bladder with sustained release and stability was thus substantiated.

The Potential of Congo Red Supplied Aggregates of Multitargeted Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor (Sorafenib, BAY-43-9006) in Enhancing Therapeutic Impact on Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer is a common malignancy associated with high recurrence rates and potential progression to invasive forms. Sorafenib, a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has shown promise in anti-cancer therapy, but its cytotoxicity to normal cells and aggregation in solution limits its clinical application. To address these challenges, we investigated the formation of supramolecular aggregates of sorafenib with Congo red (CR), a bis-azo dye known for its supramolecular interaction. We analyzed different mole ratios of CR-sorafenib aggregates and evaluated their effects on bladder cancer cells of varying levels of malignancy. In addition, we also evaluated the effect of the test compounds on normal uroepithelial cells. Our results demonstrated that sorafenib inhibits the proliferation of bladder cancer cells and induces apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. However, high concentrations of sorafenib also showed cytotoxicity to normal uroepithelial cells. In contrast, the CR-BAY aggregates exhibited reduced cytotoxicity to normal cells while maintaining anti-cancer activity. The aggregates inhibited cancer cell migration and invasion, suggesting their potential for metastasis prevention. Dynamic light scattering and UV-VIS measurements confirmed the formation of stable co-aggregates with distinctive spectral properties. These CR-sorafenib aggregates may provide a promising approach to targeted therapy with reduced cytotoxicity and improved stability for drug delivery in bladder cancer treatment. This work shows that the drug-excipient aggregates proposed and described so far, as Congo red-sorafenib, can be a real step forward in anti-cancer therapies.

Local Drug Delivery in Bladder Cancer: Advances of Nano/Micro/Macro-Scale Drug Delivery Systems

Treatment of bladder cancer remains a critical unmet need and requires advanced approaches, particularly the development of local drug delivery systems. The physiology of the urinary bladder causes the main difficulties in the local treatment of bladder cancer: regular voiding prevents the maintenance of optimal concentration of the instilled drugs, while poor permeability of the urothelium limits the penetration of the drugs into the bladder wall. Therefore, great research efforts have been spent to overcome these hurdles, thereby improving the efficacy of available therapies. The explosive development of nanotechnology, polymer science, and related fields has contributed to the emergence of a number of nanostructured vehicles (nano- and micro-scale) applicable for intravesical drug delivery. Moreover, the engineering approach has facilitated the design of several macro-sized depot systems (centimeter scale) capable of remaining in the bladder for weeks and months. In this article, the main rationales and strategies for improved intravesical delivery are reviewed. Here, we focused on analysis of colloidal nano- and micro-sized drug carriers and indwelling macro-scale devices, which were evaluated for applicability in local therapy for bladder cancer in vivo.

A pH-responsive supramolecular hydrogel encapsulating a CuMnS nanoenzyme catalyst for synergistic photothermal-photodynamic-chemodynamic therapy of tumours

Traditional cancer therapies no longer meet the current demand for cancer precision therapy and personalized treatment and it's essential to develop new therapeutic modalities as well as to investigate new combination anti-tumor mechanisms. Therefore, amphiphilic prodrug polymer chains linking methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) and cinnamaldehyde (CA) with adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH) as the pH-responsive center were designed and synthesized, which could self-assemble into PAC micelles in aqueous solution. A supramolecular hydrogel was formed based on the host-guest interaction between α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) and PAC micelles. Polyetherimide (PEI) modified copper manganese sulfide nanoenzyme catalysts (PCMS NPs) were prepared by a solvothermal method, which could be uniformly dispersed in the hydrogel to form a composite supramolecular hydrogel (PCMS@PAC/α-CD Gel). Under an acidic tumor environment, pH-responsive hydrazone bonds were broken, resulting in the slow release of CA and the amplification of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) levels. PCMS NPs exerted peroxidase (POD)-like activity and catalase (CAT)-like activity, which could convert H2O2 into hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) and oxygen (O2) to alleviate intra-tumor hypoxia and induce apoptosis, while exerting glutathione oxidase (GPX)-like activity to consume glutathione (GSH) to further enhance the effect of chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Under near-infrared light (NIR) irradiation, PCMS NPs exhibited an excellent photothermal conversion performance, which could rapidly increase the temperature of tumor cells to above 42 °C for photothermal therapy (PTT) and convert O2 to a superoxide anion (˙O2-) by exerting oxidase (OXD)-like activity for photodynamic therapy (PDT). It was demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experiments that the PCMS@PAC/α-CD Gel was highly cytotoxic to cancer cells and could effectively inhibit tumor growth, indicating the potential for applications in the fields of biomedicine and smart materials.

Application of nanotechnology in bladder cancer diagnosis and therapeutic drug delivery

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the urinary system, and its high recurrence rate is a great economic burden to patients. Traditional diagnosis and treatment methods have the disadvantages of insufficient targeting, obvious side effects and low sensitivity, which seriously limit the accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment of BC. Due to their small size, easy surface modification, optical properties such as plasmon resonance, and surface enhanced Raman scattering, good electrical conductivity and photothermal conversion properties, nanomaterials have great potential application value in the realization of specific diagnosis and targeted therapy of BC. At present, the application of nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of BC is attracting great attention and achieving rich research results. Therefore, this paper summarizes the recent research on nanomaterials in the diagnosis and treatment of BC, clarifies the existing advantages and disadvantages, and provides theoretical guidance for promoting the accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment of BC.

Advanced strategies for nucleic acids and small-molecular drugs in combined anticancer therapy

Cancer has been considered as complex malignant consequence of genetic mutations that control the cellular proliferation, differentiation and homeostasis, thus making tumor treatment extremely challenging. To date, a variety of cargo molecules, including nucleic acids drugs (pDNA, miRNA and siRNA), therapeutic drugs (doxorubicin, paclitaxel, daunomycin and gefitinib) and imaging agents (radioisotopes, fluorescence dyes, and MRI contrast agents) have been regarded as the potential medicines in clinical application. However, non-single therapeutic drug could induce the satisfied clinical results because of tumor heterogeneity and multiple drug resistance and the nanotechnology-based combined therapy is becoming an advanced important mode for enhanced anticancer effects. The review gathers the current advanced development to co-deliver small-molecular drugs and nucleic acids for the anticancer therapy with nanomedicine-based combination. Furthermore, the superiority is definitely presented and the barriers are detail discussed to surmount the clinical challenges. In final, future perspectives in rational direction for combined tumor therapy of drugs and nucleic acids are exhibited.