Off targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics is a major barrier for successful anticancer drug therapies by intravenous administration. The primary aim of this project is to develop suitable oral drug delivery systems for the effective treatment of colorectal cancer. Polymeric micelles was selected as nanocarrier to encapsulate the hydrophobic anticancer drug, curcumin (CUR) to solve the insolubility and poor oral bioavailability of the CUR. Targeting ligand was attached with micelles to selectively bind with the overexpressed receptor through ligand-receptor mediated endocytosis (active targeting). Further, the micelles were encapsulated into an alginate microcapsule carrier to make a favourable formulation for oral delivery and protect the micelles from the stomach acidic environment. This project also emphasis on the in vivo validation of the developed oral delivery system in an orthotopic colon cancer mouse model to investigate the efficiency of the targeted micelles to accumulate in the tumour site.
