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Repurposing simvastatin in cancer treatment: an updated review on pharmacological and nanotechnological aspects

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Abstract

Management of cancer is challenging due to non-targeting and high side effect issues. Drug repurposing is an innovative method for employing medications for other disease therapy in addition to their original use. Simvastatin, a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme-A reductase inhibitor, is a lipid-lowering drug that is being studied for the treatment of cancer in various in vitro and in vivo models. Nanotechnology offers a potential platform for incorporation of drugs with enhanced pharmaceutical (solubility, release characteristics, stability, etc.) and biological characteristics (targeting, pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic). Utilizing a variety of resources such as Scopus, Springer, Web of Science, Elsevier, Bentham Science, Taylor & Francis, and PubMed, a thorough literature search was carried out by looking through electronic records published between 2003 and 2024. The keywords used were simvastatin, drug repurposing, anti-cancer simvastatin, pharmaceutical properties of simvastatin, simvastatin nanoformulations, simvastatin patents, clinical trials, etc. Numerous articles were looked for, filtered, checked out, and incorporated. Pure simvastatin has been researched as a repurposed medication for the treatment of cancer in several in vitro and in vivo models, such as carcinoma of the lung, colon, liver, prostate, breast, and skin. Simvastatin also incorporated into different nanocarriers (nanosuspensions, microparticles/nanoparticles, liposomes, and nanostructured lipid carriers) and showed improvement in solubility, bioavailability, drug loading, release kinetics, and targeting. Clinical trial and patent reports suggest potential of simvastatin in cancer therapy. The preclinical studies of pure simvastatin in in vitro and in vivo models showed the potential for its ability to inhibit cancer cell growth and further incorporation into nanoformulations strengthened its preclinical and pharmaceutical characteristics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Faculty of Pharmacy, Integral University for continuous support and guidance during the writing process of this work.

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  1. Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Integral University, Lucknow, 226026, India

    Nargis Ara & Abdul Hafeez

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Integral University, Lucknow, 226026, India

    Shom Prakash Kushwaha

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All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection and main manuscript text writing were performed by Nargis Ara and Abdul Hafeez. Data analysis was performed by Shom Prakash Kushwaha. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Nargis Ara, and Abdul Hafeez reviewed and commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript. The authors confirm that no paper mill and artificial intelligence was used.

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Ara, N., Hafeez, A. & Kushwaha, S.P. Repurposing simvastatin in cancer treatment: an updated review on pharmacological and nanotechnological aspects. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-024-03151-2

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