Nanocarriers for delivery of herbal based drugs in breast cancer-an overview

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women all over the world. Despite advanced treatment modalities, the systemic toxicity remains a major side effect resulting into patient morbidity and mortality. Recently, natural products are being targeted for drug discovery because of their major role in cancer prevention and treatment. Plants have been the main source of natural compounds that are being used in medicine. However, most of the herbal bioactives are hydrophobic in nature resulting into their limited bioavailability and in turn their therapeutic efficacy. To overcome this problem, different nanocarriers such as nanoparticles, nanocapsules, liposomes, quantum dots, phytosomes, dendrimers and nanoemulsions have been conjugated with anticancer herbal bioactives. Such nano-chemotherapeutic agents exhibit increased bioavaibility, enhanced pharmacological activity and stability with reduced systemic toxicity. While majority of the reviews focus upon herbal loaded nanoformulations for various biological applications, this report is an attempt to particularly highlight the potential of nanotechnology in the delivery of herbal bioactives for breast cancer management.