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Review
. 2019 May 31;9(6):821.
doi: 10.3390/nano9060821.

Current Applications of Nanoemulsions in Cancer Therapeutics

Elena Sánchez-López  1   2   3 , Mariana Guerra  4 , João Dias-Ferreira  5 , Ana Lopez-Machado  6   7   8 , Miren Ettcheto  9   10 , Amanda Cano  11   12   13 , Marta Espina  14   15 , Antoni Camins  16   17 , Maria Luisa Garcia  18   19   20 , Eliana B Souto  21   22
Affiliations
Review

Current Applications of Nanoemulsions in Cancer Therapeutics

Elena Sánchez-López et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

Nanoemulsions are pharmaceutical formulations composed of particles within a nanometer range. They possess the capacity to encapsulate drugs that are poorly water soluble due to their hydrophobic core nature. Additionally, they are also composed of safe gradient excipients, which makes them a stable and safe option to deliver drugs. Cancer therapy has been an issue for several decades. Drugs developed to treat this disease are not always successful or end up failing, mainly due to low solubility, multidrug resistance (MDR), and unspecific toxicity. Nanoemulsions might be the solution to achieve efficient and safe tumor treatment. These formulations not only solve water-solubility problems but also provide specific targeting to cancer cells and might even be designed to overcome MDR. Nanoemulsions can be modified using ligands of different natures to target components present in tumor cells surface or to escape MDR mechanisms. Multifunctional nanoemulsions are being studied by a wide variety of researchers in different research areas mainly for the treatment of different types of cancer. All of these studies demonstrate that nanoemulsions are efficiently taken by the tumoral cells, reduce tumor growth, eliminate toxicity to healthy cells, and decrease migration of cancer cells to other organs.

Keywords: cancer; multifunctional nanoemulsions; targeted delivery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Nanoemulsions structure (based on [5]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
High pressure homogenization technique.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Microfluidification technique.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Phase inversion temperature technique (based on [62]).
Figure 5
Figure 5
(A) The solvent displacement method, and (B) the phase inversion composition method.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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