Brain tumor-targeted drug delivery strategies

Abstract

Despite the application of aggressive surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy in clinics, brain tumors are still a difficult health challenge due to their fast development and poor prognosis. Brain tumor-targeted drug delivery systems, which increase drug accumulation in the tumor region and reduce toxicity in normal brain and peripheral tissue, are a promising new approach to brain tumor treatments. Since brain tumors exhibit many distinctive characteristics relative to tumors growing in peripheral tissues, potential targets based on continuously changing vascular characteristics and the microenvironment can be utilized to facilitate effective brain tumor-targeted drug delivery. In this review, we briefly describe the physiological characteristics of brain tumors, including blood–brain/brain tumor barriers, the tumor microenvironment, and tumor stem cells. We also review targeted delivery strategies and introduce a systematic targeted drug delivery strategy to overcome the challenges.

Getting into the brain: liposome-based strategies for effective drug delivery across the blood–brain barrier

“…Moreover, the low accumulation of nanoparticles into brain tumors by the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect should be also taken into account. 202 Therefore, efforts have been made to identify and develop drug-delivery systems for the brain. Liposomes are described as a possible valuable system to achieve better therapeutic effects in the treatment of gliomas, since several targeting strategies have been reported showing ability to reach the brain and to target the tumor.…”

“…248 However, this cationization strategy suffers from several limitations, such as instability of the system in the serum, nonspecific interactions, immunogenicity, and toxicity. 202,299 RMT-based drug delivery has been widely explored for liposome targeting to the brain. This strategy relies on liposomal ligand interaction with the very specific receptor-mediated transport system in the BBB.…”

Wheat germ agglutinin-conjugated liposomes incorporated with cardiolipin to improve neuronal survival in Alzheimer’s disease treatment

“…It was also reported that incorporation of wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) could support the targeted delivery of nanoparticles across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). 20 WGA-modified nanoparticles could also be delivered to the brain after intranasal administration via the nose-brain transport pathway. 21 Since the pathogenesis of AD is in the central nervous system (CNS), the use of CL-conjugated LIP (CL/LIP) modified with WGA (WGA-CL/LIP) may benefit AD management.…”

Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles as Novel Tool in Glioma Treatment: An In vitro Study

“…Formation of capillary-like tubes of HMEC-1 was measured after across the BBB is a novel strategy against malignant gliomas [3,39,40]. Nevertheless; prior to a routine clinical use of these nanocarriers; there are still some unanswered questions which must be addressed.…”