Lipid and surfactant-based delivery systems for the treatment of cancer

Join ARU's Medical Technology Research Centre (MTRC) online for a seminar from Prof Abdelbary Elhissi about promising developments in cancer treatment using nanotechnology.

The past two decades have witnessed many advances in the treatment of cancer. Chemotherapy has shown success in the treatment of numerous types of cancer; however, chemotherapeutic agents often offer low cancer selectivity, resulting in adverse effects and toxicities. Furthermore, preparation of anticancer formulations that are suitable for administration by the patient is often problematic, because of the poor water-solubility of many anticancer molecules.

Paclitaxel (PTX), first isolated from Western yew tree (Taxus brevifolia) in 1967, has high anti-cancer activity against ovarian carcinoma, head and neck cancers, breast cancer, lung cancer and AIDS related Kaposi’s sarcoma. Taxol® is a clinically established formulation of PTX, which is prepared by dissolving the drug in ethanol and Cremophor EL® (polyoxyethylated castor oil) and ethanol (50:50 v/v). Unfortunately, the serious toxicities caused by Cremophor EL® may compromise the therapeutic benefit of Taxol.

Nanotechnology has emerged to provide promising solutions in many fields including drug delivery. Nanocarrier systems including liposomes, lipid nanoemulsions and albumin nanoparticles have demonstrated within our research group and by others to help with enhancing PTX solubility and increase the drug selectivity towards the cancer cells; thus, offering reduced adverse effects and improved anticancer activity.

However, successful outcome of nanocarrier systems in the treatment of cancer necessitates consideration of formulation stability, which demonstrates the importance of integrating the knowledge of cancer research with formulation science. Some examples using lipid and surfactant nanocarrier formulations will be demonstrated.

Prof Abdelbary Elhissi is a Professor in Pharmaceutics, the Chair of College of Pharmacy Strategy and the Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at the College of Pharmacy, Qatar University, and a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care, ARU.

Abdelbary combines a strong expertise in research at both academic and industrial levels. He obtained his PhD in 2005 from UCL School of Pharmacy and then worked as a postdoctoral research Fellow at UCL (2005-2006). He worked in the pharmaceutical industry at Lipoxen Technologies Ltd, UK as Senior Scientist (2006-2007) with responsibility of developing anticancer nanomedicine formulations.

Abdelbary joined the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in UK as Lecturer (2007-2011) and Senior Lecturer (2011-2014), where he was the lead of pharmaceutics and established one of the largest drug delivery research groups in UK. He served as Deputy Head and a founding member of the UCLan’s Institute of Nanotechnology and Bioengineering (2011-2014).

Abdelbary moved to QU as Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy in 2014 and was promoted to Professor in 2019. Parallel to this, Abdelbary is the Founding Manager of the Research Excellence Office (2017-2020) and then he served as Director of Research Planning and Development at QU (2020-2022).

Abdelbary has authored 85 peer-reviewed publications and 30 book chapters. He has supervised/co-supervised 26 MSc and PhD students and secured over USD 2.6 Million for funding his research. He has served as Visiting Professor at Sichuan University, China (2013-2016), and ARU (2022-present), and has extensive network and connections with many research active institutions worldwide.

Abdelbary’s research area is focused on developing nanomedicine formulations for the treatment of cancer and pulmonary diseases. He is particularly interested in liposomes and proliposome technologies, and how nanoparticle delivery for inhalation is influenced by inhalation device technology.

Abdelbary is among the top 2% World Scientists in terms of field citation impact according to Stanford University reports (2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022).

For more information, email [email protected]