Abstract:
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common cancer that predominantly affects elderly women.
Given the low prognosis and high mortality rate of gynaecological cancers; specifically, Endometrial and Ovarian cancer, the need for innovative efficient treatment techniques is critical.
The aim of this thesis was the development of nanoparticle delivery to endometrial cancer cell lines (Hec50 and Ishikawa) in vitro model. The nanoparticle system was fabricated using Pluronic polymer (Pluronic F127 and SS-Pluronic) to encapsulate successfully a hydrophobic epidrug and to enhance efficacy his delivery in a solid tumour cancer type. In the last years, the use of Pluronic F-127 as biomaterial has been widely investigated, due to its particular physicochemical characteristics, which include thermo-responsiveness, easy chemical functionalization and relatively good biocompatibility. In order to improve drug delivery to the site of interest, SS Pluronic was functionalized with hyaluronic acid (HA). Nanoparticles were characterized using Dynamic Light Scattering and Mass Spectroscopy and were investigated incapsulating different dye (Propidium iodide and Rhodamine B) in order to study their stability. Furthermore, the biological effect was investigated in endometrial cancer cells using viability assay and western blotting.
This project, carried out in Centre for Nano Health laboratories (Swansea University Medical School), demonstrated that nanoparticle systems thanks to their size, shape, surface charge, encapsulation efficiency and release profile are a valid therapeutic approach for the treatment of gynaecological cancers like ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer.
