Facile synthesis of elastin nanogels encapsulated decursin for castrated resistance prostate cancer therapy.

Nanogels offer hope for precise drug delivery, while addressing drug delivery hurdles is vital for effective prostate cancer (PCa) management. We developed an injectable elastin nanogels (ENG) for efficient drug delivery system to overcome castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) by delivering Decursin, a small molecule inhibitor that blocks Wnt/ßcatenin pathways for PCa. The ENG exhibited favourable characteristics such as biocompatibility, flexibility, and low toxicity. In this study, size, shape, surface charge, chemical composition, thermal stability, and other properties of ENG were used to confirm the successful synthesis and incorporation of Decursin (DEC) into elastin nanogels (ENG) for prostate cancer therapy. In vitro studies demonstrated sustained release of DEC from the ENG over 120 h, with a pH-dependent release pattern. DU145 cell line induces moderate cytotoxicity of DEC-ENG indicates that nanomedicine has an impact on cell viability and helps strike a balance between therapeutics efficacy and safety while the EPR effect enables targeted drug delivery to prostate tumor sites compared to free DEC. Morphological analysis further supported the effectiveness of DEC-ENG in inducing cell death. Overall, these findings highlight the promising role of ENG-encapsulated decursin as a targeted drug delivery system for CRPC.

State-of-the-art therapeutic strategies for targeting cancer stem cells in prostate cancer.

The development of new therapeutic strategies is on the increase for prostate cancer stem cells, owing to current standardized therapies for prostate cancer, including chemotherapy, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), radiotherapy, and surgery, often failing because of tumor relapse ability. Ultimately, tumor relapse develops into advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which becomes an irreversible and systemic disease. Hence, early identification of the intracellular components and molecular networks that promote prostate cancer is crucial for disease management and therapeutic intervention. One of the potential therapeutic methods for aggressive prostate cancer is to target prostate cancer stem cells (PCSCs), which appear to be a primary focal point of cancer metastasis and recurrence and are resistant to standardized therapies. PCSCs have also been documented to play a major role in regulating tumorigenesis, sphere formation, and the metastasis ability of prostate cancer with their stemness features. Therefore, the current review highlights the origin and identification of PCSCs and their role in anti-androgen resistance, as well as stemness-related signaling pathways. In addition, the review focuses on the current advanced therapeutic strategies for targeting PCSCs that are helping to prevent prostate cancer initiation and progression, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), nanotechnology, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) gene-editing system, and photothermal ablation (PTA) therapy.