Polymer Nanoplatforms at Work in Prostate Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common male urogenital malignancy worldwide. Surgery, endocrine therapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are the main clinical management options for PCa. However, these three therapies each have limitations. For example, surgery is not suitable for the advanced PCa patients with extensive metastases, and radiotherapy causes serious side effects. Primary endocrine therapy promotes the progression of hormone‐sensitive PCa into the castration‐resistant prostate cancer. Therefore, considering these drawbacks, chemotherapy has become an effective and extensive treatment for PCa. Among the modern therapeutic strategies against advanced PCa, polymer‐nanocarrier‐incorporated formulations have gradually emerged due to their well‐controlled release profiles and improved tumor targeting abilities. The drug delivery systems based on polymer nanoplatforms passively target tumors via the enhanced permeability and retention effect. Simultaneously, stimuli‐responsive polymer nanoplatforms unload cargoes in response to certain stimuli in the tumor area. Furthermore, the active targeting ligand‐conjugated polymer nanoformulations against PCa‐specific markers have also achieved great success in PCa therapies. Herein, the advanced polymer nanoplatforms for PCa therapy are reviewed, while the future development of polymer nanoplatforms for PCa therapy is also predicted.

Advanced functional polymer materials

“…Therefore, various stimuliresponsive polymers have been designed and used to realize 3S transitions. 293,299,300 Stimulus-responsive polymers for surface nanoproperty transition. To address the contrary demand of polymeric nanomedicines in the CA steps and I step and to realize the stealthyto-sticky transition, responsive polymers have been designed to realize three strategies, namely, PEGylation/dePEGylation, hiding/exposing functional ligands, and surface charge reversal to generate cationic charges.…”

Nanomedicine for the Treatment of Advanced Prostate Cancer

“…These include enhanced cell selectivity, cellular internalization via receptor‐mediated endocytosis, drug accumulation, drug efficacy, and safety. [ 67 ] Active targeting can play a significant role in tumor types/stages that display a compromised EPR effect, such as is the case in PCa. [ 58 ]…”

A Tumbling Magnetic Microrobot System for Biomedical Applications

“…Potential applications such as microsurgery [ 4 ], tumor imaging and ablation [ 5 , 6 ], tissue biopsies [ 7 ], targeted drug delivery [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], cell delivery [ 11 , 12 ], and gene silencing [ 13 , 14 ] have recently been explored, with demonstrations of microrobot viability in both in vitro and in vivo conditions. Polymer nanoplatforms have been shown to release chemicals to different stimuli such as presence of certain enzymes, pH changes, temperature differences, ultrasound, etc.…”

“…Polymer nanoplatforms have been shown to release chemicals to different stimuli such as presence of certain enzymes, pH changes, temperature differences, ultrasound, etc. [ 7 ]. Colloid micromotors with a cell membrane coating show biocompatibility and movement with outside triggers [ 15 ].…”