Engineered Nanoparticles in Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Intense research has led to a more comprehensive understanding of cancer at the genetic, molecular, and cellular levels providing an avenue for methods of increasing antitumor efficacy of drugs while reducing systemic side effects. Nanoparticulate technology is of particular use in developing a new generation of more effective cancer therapies capable of overcoming the many biological, biophysical, and biomedical barriers that the body stages against a standard intervention. Nanoparticles show much promise in cancer therapy by selectively gaining access to tumor due to their small size and modifiability. Typically, though not exclusively, nanoparticles are defined as submicroscopic particles between 1 and 100 nm. Nanoparticles are formulated out of a variety of substances and engineered to carry an array of substances in a controlled and targeted manner. Nanoparticles are prepared to take advantage of fundamental cancer morphology and modes of development such as rapid proliferation of cells, antigen expression, and leaky tumor vasculature. In cancer treatment and detection nanoparticles serve many targeted functions in chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, immunodetection, thermotherapy, imaging, photodynamic therapy, and anti-angiogenesis. Not only are modifying agents allowing for greater and more accurate tumor targeting, they are also aiding in the crossing of biophysical barriers such as the blood brain barrier there by reducing peripheral effects and increasing the relative amount of drug reaching in the brain. Moreover, multifunctional nanoparticles perform many of these tasks simultaneously such as targeted delivery of a potent anticancer drug at the same time as an imaging material to visualize the effectiveness of the drug utilized for treatment follow-up. In this review, several recent US and World patents developing and modifying nanoparticles for the detection, analysis, and treatment of cancer are discussed.

Supramolecular nanoscale assemblies for cancer diagnosis and therapy

“…Anticancer activity of chemotherapeutics is not selective to tumours often causing damage to healthy tissues [4,[6][7][8]. Unfavourable drug pharmacokinetics (low half-life time in the bloodstream) and pharmacodynamics (unselective drug-receptor interactions) combined with high drug doses and poor drug solubility are the principal limitations of conventional chemotherapy [7,[9][10][11][12].…”

“…Nanosystems like dendrimers, liposomes, niosomes, metal based NPs, micelles, nanoemulsions, quantum dots and polymer NPs have been developed (Table 2). They are expected to overcome the limitations such as poor solubility and stability at physiological pH, inadequate biodistribution, low bioavailability, which are observed when anticancer drugs are administered in a conventional way [4,9,10,32,36,[55][56][57][58]. Physico-chemical properties such as composition, shape, roughness, hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity, hydrodynamic diameter and surface charge influence the stability of DDS nanosystems [12,59] and their drug delivery applications [8,60].…”

“…NPs are developed to target different biomolecules in a carry mode. Taking advantage of the tumour morphology, cell proliferation, antigen expression and leaky tumour vasculature, NPs are designed for an efficient drug delivery [4]. In fact, this uptake and distribution in the body is based on various physicochemical characteristics of NPs such as NP-based nanocarrier, size, shape and surface charge [4,133,134].…”

“…Chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer treatment are capable of blocking critical cell cycle phases leading to death of tumour cells (Table 1) [4]. Table 1.…”

Multifunctional Gold Nanocarriers for Cancer Theranostics: From Bench to Bedside and Back Again?

“…Nanoparticle-based delivery systems in Theranostics (Diagnostics & Therapy) provide better penetration of therapeutic and diagnostic substances within the body at a reduced risk in comparison to conventional therapies (Ma et al, 2011;Praetorius and Mandal, 2007). Limitations in medical practice are intimately associated with the fact that diagnostics, therapy and therapy guidance are mostly separate from each other.…”