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 it. Because of this, she went into depression only worsening her condition further.Then I thought, I am a young student, if I do not do it, who will? The story of the Indian pad man, Arunachalam Muruganantham, who talked about a cheap menstrual sanitary pad also gave me a lot of courage that if someone from a remote village can do it so can I!!
The first challenge was to select a drug that kills breast cancer cellsand prevents recurrence. I narrowed down on doxorubicin as a therapeutic agent, the efficiency of which is well known. However, it possesses several drawbacks, a major one of them being cardiotoxicity. Targeting cancer cells and avoiding uptake by the normal cellscan be a strategy that reduces toxic effect in normal cells, but enhances the toxicity in cancerous cell. I found few carriers that could be promising. Another problem associated with cancer is recurrence. Thus, I was also searching for the drug that
could avoid the recurrence of
cancer. Exemestane is such
a drug that is used in post-
menopausal women. However,
women often discontinue this
drug due to some unbearable
side-effects of the drug. The
challenge was to overcome
these problems and deliver
these drugs with maximum
therapeutic effects.
Most of the good polymers
which are biodegradable
and safe, such as poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), polycaprolactone are expensive. Few targeting moieties such as antibodies, arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD), aptamers are also steep. Functionalization requires chemicals (such as linkers) that are also pricey; finally making the overall cost too high. Thus, my motivewas to use comparatively low- priced ingredient, which is easily available,
Ms. Samipta Singh || 245
flexible enough for modification, less toxic and may even givean added synergistic effect to the therapy.
Whey protein has gained a lot of popularity amongst the six pack abs generation because of its use in building muscles. Whey proteins have also shown to possess anticancer effect against various cancers, such as breast, colon and prostate cancers. Using them as a nano carrier for a pharmaceutical drug is uncommon, but an inexpensive option. Moreover, it may also synergize the activity of the anti- cancer drugs. Instead of taking whey and drug separately, taking them together in the form of ligand functionalized nanoparticles may possess numerous advantages, such as targeting, reduced adverse or side effects. Functionalized whey nano carriers could give an efficient targeting option. Another useful carrier can be graphene oxide. Graphenes are the single atomic layer of graphite. Graphene
oxides are the graphenes containing oxygen attached to both the sides of the graphene flake. They are also known to have their own cytotoxic activity against breast cancer cells, which is expected to enhance the overall activity via a different pathway. However, there have been some issues of its toxicity to the normal cells, if taken alone. Addition of chitosan reduces toxicity of graphenes to normal cells to a large extent
as well as gives it stability, as well as imparts an amine group which enables easy attachment of drug molecule to it. Breast cancer-specific nutrient functionalized drug-loaded graphene may also aid in targeting because these nutrients are overexpressed on the surface of breast cancer cell. I am working on several such nano-based carriers. If you try to make a tennis ball pass through a sieve it will not
   Cancer cells thus have receptors on their surface, which are like radars sourcing and attracting nutrients to enable rapid multiplication. Breast cancer cells have many folate receptors on their surface because of their enormous need for folate.
  












































































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