Assessment of different types of zeolites for drug delivery applications / Ahmed Gamal Abdelsatar Hashem ; Supervised Saeed Abdelrahman Moustafa , Emad Abdelsalam Elmeliegy

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Inorganic Chemistry

The development of new therapeutic methods for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer is a critical issue. Fluorouracil (5-Fu) drug is one of the most effective chemotherapeutic and cytotoxic agents in the treatment of several kinds of cancers. The main disadvantage of such drug is its high rate of metabolism in the body with overall response rate of 5-FU{u2248}10%, which requires a continuous administration. This route may result in a serious toxic effect for normal cells together with diseased cells during treatment. The therapy of 5-FU is expected to be improved by incorporation in microporous zeolite as carrier. The Fluorouracil- zeolite drug delivery system would be an interesting approach to selectively deliver the right drug dose over a long time of release in a sustained manner and reduced toxicity. This would maximize the availability of the fluorouracil drug with a minimum dose, minimize the drug accumulation with chronic dosing, improve the drug efficacy, reduce the toxicity, and the associated side effects. The main objective of this work is to incorporate the fluorouracil (5- Fu) drug in microporous zeolites (with 1-2nms pore sizes), in order to delay the drug release rate and maintain a constant drug level for a specific period of time. Additionally, the incorporation of fluorouracil in the microporous zeolites would allow at least a twofold reduction in the conventional dosage frequency of gastrointestinal cancer treatment.

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