ABSTRACT:
The objective of the proposed work is to evaluate the efficacy of pectin and Modified Citrous Pectins (MCP) as anticancerous agent and also to qualify them as polymers for designing drug delivery of selected oral antineoplastic agents and to get synergistic effect in cancer. The exploitation of various plant materials for the biosynthesis of microspheres is considered a green technology as it does not involve any harmful chemicals. Empty microspheres and drug loaded microspheres were prepared by the emulsification extraction technique and subsequently evaluated for its different physical parameters as well as its in vitro and in vivo drug release study. The citrous pectin, modified citrous pectin, empty microspheres of MCP and drug loaded microspheres of MCP, were compared for pectin activity, its release and its synergistic effect with antineoplastic agent on KATO III cancer cell lines. Due to synergism drug loaded microspheres of MCP kills highest number of cancer cells. From in vitro and in Ovivo results, it may be concluded that pectin, modified pectin and drug loaded modified citrus pectin microspheres is having cancer suppression effect. Drug loaded microspreres of MCP are a suitable drug delivery system for antineoplastic agent and have synergistic effect. Due to its anti-adhesive, apoptosis- promoting, and apoptosis-inducing properties, it appears that MCP is capable of targeting multiple critical rate-limiting steps involved in cancer metastasis. In addition, by inhibiting Gal-3 anti-apoptotic function and enhancing apoptosis induced by cytotoxic drugs, it holds the potential to increase dramatically the efficiency of a conventional chemotherapy. From this experiment, it could be concluded that as a natural polymer, pectin has potentiality in suppression of cancer.