Study of the drug interactions of gemcitabine hydrochloride with lipid membrane models

Abstract

Gemcitabine hydrochloride (GEM) is one of the drugs used in cancer treatment for several types of tumor pathologies. Unfortunately, the therapeutic efficacy of these drugs depends on the intrinsic or acquired resistance of patients during treatment, and this is a major problem in cancer therapy. On the other hand, Langmuir monolayers can be used to investigate the effects of drug molecules on the membrane and how these interactions can translate into effects on membrane proteins. In addition it gives us information about the possible mechanisms of action of antitumor drugs, as well as modeling some resistance processes, thus improving clinical treatments. The focus of this project is to study how the drug gemcitabine influences a single membrane model employing a lipid or mixture of various lipids. This will allow us to reach the closest membrane model of resistive tumor cells, and it will be possible to extract qualitative information on the character of these interactions. To that end, the Langmuir technique will be applied, since the monolayers air / water interface serve as a very useful model for the analysis of biomembranes. (AU)