Advances in Anticancer Protein Delivery using Micro‐/Nanoparticles

Abstract

Proteins exhibiting anticancer activities, especially those capable of discriminately killing cancer cells, have attracted increasing interest in developing protein-based anticancer therapeutics. This progress report surveys recent advances in delivering anticancer proteins directly to tumor tissue for inducing apoptosis/necrosis or indirectly to antigen presenting cells for provoking immune responses. Protein delivery carriers such as inorganic particles, lipid particles, polymeric particles, DNA/protein based biomacromolecular particles as well as cell based carriers are reviewed with comments on their advantages and limitations. Future challenges and opportunities are also discussed.

Recent advances of cocktail chemotherapy by combination drug delivery systems

“…By taking advantage of profound understanding of cellular and molecular complexity of cancer and the availability of versatile materials, including synthetic polymers[31-34], lipids[35-39], inorganic materials[40-43], and biomacromolecule scaffolds[44-49], the DDS capable of delivering chemotherapeutics to tumor site have been developed enormously[50-54]. The emergence of nanotechnology has made profound impact on combination drug delivery and nanoparticles have been introduced as the drug carriers to achieve efficient chemotherapeutics delivery for decades.…”

Engineering DNA scaffolds for delivery of anticancer therapeutics

“…Proteins with anticancer activities, such as antibodies, cytokines, transcription factors and enzymes, were discovered capable of activating the apoptosis pathways or blocking growth signals in cancer cells. 2,64 In addition to directly interacting with cancer cells, proteins can also function as antigens to activate leukocytes, such as T cells, after being phagocytized and presented by antigen presenting cells. 65 The highly specific set of activities makes protein a very diverse and promising class of anticancer therapeutics.…”

Tumor Microenvironment‐Tailored Weakly Cell‐Interacted Extracellular Delivery Platform Enables Precise Antibody Release and Function

“…Apart from the high specificity and safety, these drugs function on the extracellular targets, well avoiding the barriers of cell membrane and endosomal escaping, thus providing high tumor suppression efficiency . However, limited by their intrinsic drawbacks of proteins, such as the fragile tertiary structures and surface charges, direct delivery of these drugs is hampered . For example, protein drugs are susceptible to enzymatic degradation and or denaturation in bloodstream, rendering them short half‐life time and immunogenicity .…”