Coconut oil/lauric acid-based nanodrug formulation: a multifunctional platform for enhancing cancer therapy and mitigating toxicity.

The significant toxicity associated with anticancer drugs during traditional treatments, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy, limits their therapeutic index by causing various adverse effects on healthy cells. Particularly, the clinical application of platinum (Pt)-based anticancer drugs (Pt-ADs), including cisplatin, carboplatin, and others, is challenging and severely hampered by intrinsic drug resistance, oxidative stress, and toxicity. Lipid-based nanodrug delivery systems have emerged as a promising solution to overcome these challenges, offering enhanced drug targeting, controlled release, and improved therapeutic indices. Among lipid-based carriers, coconut oil (CO) has attracted growing interest as a natural, biocompatible component for nanodrug formulations. Rich in medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) and bioactive fatty acids such as lauric acid (LA), CO not only serves as an efficient solubilizing and stabilizing agent but also exhibits potential antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, and immunomodulatory properties. Recently, we also found coconut kernel extract or a type of oil extracted from coconut kernel demonstrates considerable antioxidant and anticancer properties, as well as the capacity to diminish oxidative stress and the overexpression of the c-MYC proto-oncogene. Therefore, in this review, we explored the emerging role of CO/LA-based nanodrugs (CO/LA-NDs) in cancer therapy. We further focused on their anticancer effects with potential mechanistic insight followed by, a brief discussion of a few instances of CO/LA-based nanoformulation techniques' capacity to mitigate systemic anticancer drug-mediated toxicity while enhancing anticancer efficacy, and the pharmacokinetic advantages of CO/LA-NDs in cancer research with an emphasis on pharmacological strategy to target cancer stem cells (CSCs). We also discussed how CO's antioxidant properties might be used in the future to target CSCs and lessen Pt-AD-mediated toxicity. Therefore, by incorporating natural lipid systems into nanomedicine, CO/LA-based nanodrug (CO/LA-ND) formulations may offer a fresh, multifunctional platform for cancer treatment, enhancing efficacy and lowering side effects.