Functional Materials for Subcellular Targeting Strategies in Cancer Therapy: Progress and Prospects

Abstract

Neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies have made significant progress in cancer treatment. However, tumor adjuvant therapy still faces challenges due to the intrinsic heterogeneity of cancer, genomic instability, and the formation of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Functional materials possess unique biological properties such as long circulation times, tumor‐specific targeting, and immunomodulation. The combination of functional materials with natural substances and nanotechnology has led to the development of smart biomaterials with multiple functions, high biocompatibilities, and negligible immunogenicities, which can be used for precise cancer treatment. Recently, subcellular structure‐targeting functional materials have received particular attention in various biomedical applications including the diagnosis, sensing, and imaging of tumors and drug delivery. Subcellular organelle‐targeting materials can precisely accumulate therapeutic agents in organelles, considerably reduce the threshold dosages of therapeutic agents, and minimize drug‐related side effects. This review provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of the research progress in subcellular organelle‐targeted cancer therapy based on functional nanomaterials. Moreover, it explains the challenges and prospects of subcellular organelle‐targeting functional materials in precision oncology. We believe that our review will serve as an excellent cutting‐edge guide for researchers in the field of subcellular organelle‐targeted cancer therapy.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Mito-Specific Nutri-Hijacker Synergizing Mitochondrial Metabolism and Glycolysis Intervention for Enhanced Antitumor Bioenergetic Therapy

“…We further studied the intracellular ATP level, which is closely related to ΔΨ m . , From the results in Figure d, similar to the extent of ΔΨ m collapse, diIR780, RPP NPs@diIR780, and GRPP NPs@diIR780 effectively blocked intracellular ATP production upon irradiation. Blocking energy production and glucose supplements by GRPP NPs@diIR780 led to an enhanced treatment performance compared to methods with a single pathway.…”

A high-throughput lysosome trafficking assay guides ligand selection and elucidates differences in CD22-targeted nanodelivery

“…Selecting optimal targeting ligands through understanding subcellular processes associated with productive delivery will enable improved design of nano-delivery systems. Further refinement of drug delivery systems to dial-in subcellular function could be critical to realize next-generation systems with improved therapeutic index [ 64 , 65 ]. Furthermore, the basic assay design described here could be further expanded-on to answer more complex questions regarding trafficking and function of targeted NPs and further guide NP design.…”

Oxygen and pH responsive theragnostic liposomes for early-stage diagnosis and photothermal therapy of solid tumours

“…7,[9][10][11] Nonetheless, it is also noted that even with the inclusion of targeting agents, the broad biodistribution of fluorescent probes may not be avoided following systemic administration, especially when the tumour growth is incipient. 12,13 Distinguishing the tumour specific signal from comprehensive optical signals is thus necessary.…”