Noscapine, a
tubulin binding
anticancer agent undergoing Phase I/II clinical trials, inhibits
tumor growth in nude mice bearing human xenografts of breast, lung, ovarian, brain, and prostrate origin. The analogues of
noscapine like 9-bromonoscapine (EM011) are 5 to 10-fold more active than parent compound,
noscapine. Noscapinoids inhibit the proliferation of
cancer cells that are resistant to
paclitaxel and
epothilone.
Noscapine also potentiated the anticancer activity of
doxorubicin in a synergistic manner against
triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, physicochemical and pharmacokinetic (ED50˜300-600 mg/kg bodyweight) limitations of
noscapine present hurdle in development of commercial anticancer formulations. Therefore, objectives of the present review are to summarize the chemotherapeutic potential of
noscapine and implications of nanoscale based drug delivery systems in enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of
noscapine in
cancer cells. We have constructed
noscapine-enveloped
gelatin nanoparticles, NPs and poly (
ethylene glycol) grafted
gelatin NPs as well as inclusion complex of
noscapine in β-
cyclodextrin (β-CD) and evaluated their physicochemical characteristics. The Fe3O4 NPs were also used to incorporate
noscapine in its polymeric nanomatrix system where molecular weight of the
polymer governed the encapsulation efficiency of
drug. The enhanced
noscapine delivery using μPAR-targeted optical-MR imaging trackable NPs offer a great potential for image directed targeted delivery of
noscapine.
Human Serum Albumin NPs (150-300 nm) as efficient
noscapine drug delivery systems have also been developed for potential use in
breast cancer.