Ferritin in cancer therapy: A pleiotropic tumoraffin nanocage‐based transport

Abstract

Background Ferritin, a ubiquitously distributed iron storage protein, can specifically target tumor cells through transferrin receptor 1. Due to its rearrangeable nanocage structure, ferritin can be loaded with anticancer drugs. Combined with amino acid modifications on the outer‐ and/or inner‐spaces of the nanocage, ferritins can be further coupled with antigens, antibodies, and nucleotide sequences. Since ferritin is naturally presented in the human body, when used in vivo, ferritin exhibits good biocompatibility, and no immunogenic response occurs. These makes ferritin an ideal nanocarrier which shows broad application prospects in cancer therapy. Methods In this study, to find articles, a search was made in PubMed with the keywords ferritin, drug delivery, drug delivery, and cancer treatment. Results According to the investigation, some studies suggest that ferritin can be loaded with drugs and targeted for delivery to tumor tissue. Therefore, ferritin nanocarriers loaded with drugs can be used in chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT), photothermal therapy (PTT) and immunotherapy. Importantly, the specific targeting of ferritin nanocarriers to tumor cells increases the effectiveness of related therapies and reduces side effects. Conclusions We conclude in this paper that the superior properties of ferritin nanocarriers as an emerging drug delivery system make them a promising cancer treatment strategy. In the future, it is worth conducting clinical trials to further investigate the safety and efficacy of ferritin nanocarriers in patients.

Moving beyond traditional therapies: the role of nanomedicines in lung cancer

“…To address this limitation, researchers have developed dual-targeting ferritin drug carriers. For example, Deng et al (2023) genetically engineered a membrane-penetrating peptide called tLyP-1 and fused it to the N-terminal end of human ferrous ferritin (HFn). They loaded paclitaxel (PTX) into the HFn nanocage and demonstrated that this modified ferritin with tLyP-1 has dual receptor-mediated targeting function.…”

The recent advancements in protein nanoparticles for immunotherapy

“…Generally, ferritin is a protein with a molecular weight of 450 kDa, consisting of 24 subunits self-assembled into a cage-like structure, with inner and outer sizes of 8 nm and 12 nm, respectively. 104–106 Ferritin derived from eukaryotes generally has two genes encoding the heavy chain and the light chain. The heavy chain and light chain subunits have different biological functions individually, and the proportion of heavy chain and light chain subunits in ferritin varies among different organisms and tissues, displaying distinct characteristics.…”

Combined Ferritin Nanocarriers with ICG for Effective Phototherapy Against Breast Cancer

“…HFn consist of 24 monomers of the H-chain of Fn characterized by a high thermal stability and low immunogenicity, as already reported by different groups, including ours. [13][14][15] Moreover, HFn can be loaded with drugs and fluorescent dyes for theranostic applications, following different approaches. The most common ones are the disassembly-reassembly induced by pH variation or by incubation with urea, and the opening of peculiar loading channels by increasing the temperature of the HFn solution.…”