Albumin is among the most researched endogenous proteins that is used in the advancement of drug delivery and diagnosis technology over the last decade. Human serum albumin is by far the most abundant protein in the body, and it is mostly distributed in the cardiopulmonary and circulatory systems. It has also been used in a multitude of applications, including nephrotic syndrome, blood replacement, extreme burn care, and compensating for starvation or cachexia in people with cancer.
Albumin as a drug delivery system
Albumin is a versatile drug delivery system. It has been used to create conjugates, nanoparticles, and/or compounds containing drugs, proteins, and antibodies. Drugs, drug candidates, and polypeptides may be directly or covalently attached to human serum albumin by a ligand or protein-binding unit in conjugates. In addition, hydrophilic micro- and microspheres, as well as micelle-based injectable solutions containing therapeutic agents or diagnostic agents, can be produced.
Clinical impact
In the last twenty years, albumin and transferrin have gotten the most recognition as drug delivery systems among serum proteins. Prior to that, the arrival of monoclonal antibodies, pioneered by Milstein and Koehler, dominated their future use. Meanwhile, there have been many marketed drugs and numerous clinical testing involving transferrin, but particularly albumin, as an endogenous or exogenous protein complex for curing specific illnesses, mainly cancer, muscular dystrophy, hepatitis, and diabetes.
Albumin as a versatile carrier
Human serum albumin (HSA) has arisen as a versatile transporter for therapeutic agents, especially for the treatment of diabetes and cancer, as well as for optimising the pharmacological properties of medications and transporting them to the pathogenic site in conditions with unmet healthcare needs.
In cancer therapies
Serum albumin, a naturally occurring ligand carrier that is strongly concentrated and circulates for a long time in the blood, has shown great potential as an anti-cancer drug carrier. Albumin has the potential to increase the dissemination half-life of medications that would otherwise be cleared easily and, more significantly, facilitate their aggregation within tumours. Albumin as a cancer drug carrier has a wide variety of uses, covering both conventional cancer therapies and experimental biologics.
Exogenous and also in situ binding methods that use covalent addition, non-covalent interaction, or extensibility in albumin-based nanoparticles can all be regarded as ways to use albumin for delivery systems. These approaches have had excellent clinical and preclinical outcomes.
Paclitaxel has a wide range of applications in cancer treatment, but it has never been considered an effective treatment for pancreatic cancer. The early use of paclitaxel in pancreatic cancer was plagued by major side effects such as neutropenia and inflammation at clinically tolerable doses, according to a study of the Cremophor formulation's history.
However, the application of nab-paclitaxel to gemcitabine greatly increased the survival rate of patients with pancreatic cancer in the newly ended phase 3 Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Clinical Trial. A few other Cremophor-free paclitaxel formulas had already been tested in pancreatic cancer, and indeed the factors for the albumin nanoparticulate's efficacy are discussed. The performance of nab-paclitaxel in pancreatic cancer is a stark reminder of the role and significance of pharmacology and innovative drug delivery systems in the production of anti-caking operatives in the age of pharmacological and chemically controlled agents.
