Nanomedicine Strategies in Conquering and Utilizing the Cancer Hypoxia Environment

Abstract

Cancer with a complex pathological process is a major disease to human welfare. Due to the imbalance between oxygen (O 2 ) supply and consumption, hypoxia is a natural characteristic of most solid tumors and an important obstacle for cancer therapy, which is closely related to tumor proliferation, metastasis, and invasion. Various strategies to exploit the feature of tumor hypoxia have been developed in the past decade, which can be used to alleviate tumor hypoxia, or utilize the hypoxia for targeted delivery and diagnostic imaging. The strategies to alleviate tumor hypoxia include delivering O 2 , in situ O 2 generation, reprogramming the tumor vascular system, decreasing O 2 consumption, and inhibiting HIF-1 related pathways. On the other side, hypoxia can also be utilized for hypoxia-responsive chemical construction and hypoxia-active prodrug-based strategies. Taking advantage of hypoxia in the tumor region, a number of methods have been applied to identify and keep track of changes in tumor hypoxia. Herein, we thoroughly review the recent progress of nanomedicine strategies in both conquering and utilizing hypoxia to combat cancer and put forward the prospect of emerging nanomaterials for future clinical transformation, which hopes to provide perspectives in nanomaterials design.

DKK2 promotes the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma through the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

“…This is because rapidly growing malignant tumors disrupt the balance between oxygen consumption and supply, leading to a hypoxic environment inside cancer cells. The hypoxic environment of cancer cells activates a series of cascading factors, and the interaction of these factors contributes to issues such as cancer metastasis, invasion, resistance changes, and poor prognosis [28][29][30][31]. Therefore, we examined the changes in DKK2 under simulated in vivo hypoxic conditions and confirmed that the expression of DKK2 increases under hypoxic conditions.…”

Nanomaterials Enhance Pyroptosis-Based Tumor Immunotherapy

“…40 Tumor hypoxia is an important cause of immune escape in solid tumors and inhibits the function of T cells and increases the number of immunosuppressive cells. 167 168 Improving tumor hypoxia is a potential strategy for enhancing pyroptosis-based tumor therapy.…”

A FAPI-conjugated FITC fluorescence probe for targeted cancer imaging

“…Cancer, a disease with a high mortality rate, has emerged as a major serious health problem, posing threat to humanity. 1–3 In order to effectively treat cancer and improve survival rates, the development of imaging strategies capable of detecting tumors has become a hot topic of research. 4,5 Traditional imaging techniques, such as radiography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), face difficulties in directly monitoring biological phenomena on a real time scale.…”