Drug and gene co-delivery systems for cancer treatment

Abstract

Cancer remains a major killer and a leading cause of death in the world; thus, a growing number of new treatments have been focused on cancer therapy over the past few decades. Chemotherapy, which is thought to be a powerful strategy for cancer treatment, has been widely used in clinical therapy in recent years. However, due to the complexity of cancer, a single therapeutic approach is insufficient for the suppression of cancer growth and migration. Therefore, increasing attention has been paid to the use of smart multifunctional carriers and combinatorially delivers chemotherapeutic drugs and functional genes in order to maximize therapeutic efficiency. Combination therapy using selected drugs and genes can not only overcome multidrug resistance and inhibit the cellular anti-apoptotic process but also achieve a synergistic therapeutic effect. Because multifunctional nanocarriers are important for achieving these goals, this review will illustrate and discuss some advanced biomaterial nanocarriers for co-delivering therapeutic genes and drugs, including multifunctional micelles, liposomes, polymeric conjugates and inorganic nanoparticles. In addition, the challenges and future perspectives for co-delivery systems, containing therapeutic drugs and genes to achieve better therapeutic effects for cancer treatment will be discussed.

Smart micro/nanoparticles in stimulus-responsive drug/gene delivery systems

“…For example, in co-delivery of genes and drugs, the issue of the time-gap between the onset of the function of genes (24–72 h for transcription and translation of genetic materials or for suppression of protein expression) and the onset of drug action must be fully addressed before the co-delivery of combination drug/gene therapy becomes an effective treatment. 461 As a suggestion for future work in this regard, the issue may be resolved by the new class of smart MNPs which are capable of the sequential release of genes and drugs at optimized time intervals. For this purpose, the use of internal stimuli (such as pH or enzyme activity) and external stimuli (such as temperature or light 462 ) could act as a release-triggering agent for genes and drugs separately.…”

Metal, Metalloid, and Oxide Nanoparticles for Therapeutic and Diagnostic Oncology

“…These NPs are versatile agents with various applications in biomedicine, including diagnostic assays [16,17], thermal ablation, efficacy enhancement of radiotherapy [18][19][20][21], and drug or gene delivery [22][23][24][25][26].…”

Injectable Hydrogels as Unique Platforms for Local Chemotherapeutics‐Based Combination Antitumor Therapy

“…Once intermolecular cross‐linking has occurred with adequate cross‐linking density due to the generation of new covalent bonds, three‐dimensional (3D) network structures may be formed. When therapeutic agents or live cells are encapsulated within the gels during gel formation, the system may act as a platform for sustained drug delivery or tissue regeneration . Compared to their physically cross‐linked counterparts, the hydrogels with cross‐linking networks of stable covalent bonds usually possess relatively lower critical gelation concentration, higher mechanical strength, and physical stability, as well as a prolonged degradation period, which may be beneficial to their biomedical application, such as long‐term drugs/biomolecules delivery, 3D cell culture, and tissue engineering .…”

“…Combination therapy based on different antitumor mechanisms is an efficient approach, which has been demonstrated to maximize the therapeutic efficiency when compared to a single therapeutic approach for the treatment of various cancers . However, some drawbacks of free small molecule anticancer drugs, including rapid metabolism, poor bioavailability, undesirable drug absorption, and distribution, have always been limitations for cancer combination therapy …”