Recent progress in synergistic chemotherapy and phototherapy by targeted drug delivery systems for cancer treatment

Abstract

Although it's pharmacological effect for cancer therapy, conventional chemotherapy has been compromised by a series of shortcomings such as limited stability, nonspecific tumour targeting ability and severe toxic side effects. To overcome these limitations, multifunctional targeted drug delivery systems for combinatorial therapeutics have been widely explored as novel cancer therapy strategies, showing encouraging results in many pre-clinical animal experiments. Among them, synergistic phototherapy and chemotherapy have demonstrated their abilities to enhance therapeutic efficacies and reduce unwanted side effects via a variety of mechanisms. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in the development of targeted drug delivery systems with combinations of phototherapy and chemotherapy and discuss the important roles of phototherapy agents involved in those non-conventional therapeutic strategies.

Nanogel: A Versatile Nano-Delivery System for Biomedical Applications

“…Hyperthermic conditions induced the efficient cell uptake of NPs with drug loading, stimulated drug release, and enhanced therapeutic outcomes. Moreover, chemo-photothermal combination therapy can augment cell membrane permeability [119,120]. Accordingly, many nanosystems for combined PTT and chemotherapy, including inorganic NPs [121], micelles [122], and polymeric NPs [123], have been developed.…”

Se@SiO2 nanocomposites attenuate doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity through combatting oxidative damage

“…Cancer is a severe disease. Among the strategies combating cancer, chemotherapy is an important and highly effective treatment which has been promoted by nanotechnology [1]. Doxorubicin (DOX) is the first line chemotherapeutic agent used in many cancers [2].…”

A study on screening and antitumor effect of CD55-specific ligand peptide in cervical cancer cells

“… 1 , 2 However, due to its limited ability to distinguish human tumor cells from normal ones, chemotherapy drugs also affect normal cells while killing tumor cells. 3 To improve the therapeutic efficacy of antitumor drugs, it is essential to develop tumor-targeted drugs that can specifically accumulate in tumors and cause death of tumor cells without doing harm to normal ones. 3 – 5 Previous studies have found that one or more complement regulatory proteins (CD46, CD55, CD59) are highly expressed on various surface of tumor cells such as uterine serous carcinomas.…”

“… 3 To improve the therapeutic efficacy of antitumor drugs, it is essential to develop tumor-targeted drugs that can specifically accumulate in tumors and cause death of tumor cells without doing harm to normal ones. 3 – 5 Previous studies have found that one or more complement regulatory proteins (CD46, CD55, CD59) are highly expressed on various surface of tumor cells such as uterine serous carcinomas. 6 Studies showed that small interfering RNAs inhibiting CD55 and CD59 (but not CD46) expression in vitro could sensitize uterine serous carcinomas to complement-dependent cytotoxicity and antibodies-dependent cytotoxicity.…”