A research team of the Chemistry Department of Arak University, led by Dr. Mohammad Soleiman Nejad and Rezvan Rahimi, succeeded in producing a synthesized nanoplate for targeted drug delivery. Dr. Soleimannejad explained “nowadays, the use of nanostructures in targeted drug delivery to cancer tissues has many applications in modern medicine. The application of nanotechnology in medicine is promising for the treatment of many diseases.”

Nanotechnology in the drug delivery system has a great impact on the selective recognition of cancer cells, targeted drug delivery in cancer cells and overcoming the limitations of conventional chemotherapy. Targeted release of the drug does not affect the drug to other healthy organs and thus reduces side effects and problems caused by repeated use of the drug.

Dr. Soleimannejad pointed to the main differences of this drug for this particular disease with similar samples before: “Unlike conventional chemotherapy, which targets both healthy and cancer cells, the anti-cancer drug β-lapachone, which is carried on the BC2N nanocarrier, can only specifically target cancer cells such as prostate, pancreas and lung. 

Many drug research studies have focused exclusively on the uptake of drugs into nanostructures and have not addressed the more important issue of drug release from nanocarriers in the vicinity of cancer cells. The results of the present project confirm the ability of BC2N synthesized nanocarriers to be a promising carrier for the delivery and release of beta-lapachone anticancer drug in the treatment of cancer.