ABSTRACT
Oral administration of anticancer drugs will increase the patients' quality of life, facilitate the administration of combined therapies, and prolong therapeutic exposure to the anticancer drugs. In this sense, nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems appear as a potential solution to overcoming many of the drawbacks of oral administration. Also the use of phytopharmaceutical drugs with anticancer activity can be prompted by the use of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems come in a wide and diverse catalog that includes lipid Nanoparticles (NPs), liposomes, lipid micelles, lipid-drug conjugates, self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems, nanocrystals, polymeric NPs, and polymeric micelles, carbon nanotubes among others. Keeping to the theme of NPs from the carbon NP family, carbon nanopowder was also used by Ding et al. in order to increase the bioavailability of apigenin, a bioactive flavonoid with anticancer activity. The carbon nanopowder successfully increased the oral bioavailability of apigenin without increasing the intestinal toxicity of the drug in male Sprague-Dawley® rats.
