Co-Delivery of Cisplatin and Gemcitabine via Viscous Nanoemulsion for Potential Synergistic Intravesical Chemotherapy

Combined chemotherapy is an effective and safe treatment for cancers. Co-administration of cisplatin and gemcitabine produces a synergistic effect for bladder cancer treatment, so viscous microemulsions were developed for co-delivery of cisplatin and gemcitabine to extend the retention time and improve the permeability of chemotherapeutic drugs into the urothelium by intravesical administration. Results showed that the deposition amounts of cisplatin and gemcitabine significantly increased in in vitro and in vivo study. The penetration depth in bladder tissue samples increased from 60 to 120 μm. The dual-loaded formulation also showed thermodynamic and chemical stability, demonstrating that these gel-based microemulsions are promising drug delivery carriers for chemotherapy agents by intravesical administration.