The Role of Nanotechnology in Prostate Cancer Theranostic Applications

Abstract

Recent advancements in cancer nanotechnology have facilitated a better way to diagnosis and provide therapy for prostate cancer. Nanotechnology has the potential to battle tumors at the site, where the cancer begins. There is a need to improve the therapeutic availabilities and the effectiveness of conventional chemotherapeutic agents for prostate cancer. Many therapeutic NPs have been developed with nanotechnology that can specifically target and deliver variety of agents including chemo drugs to destruct the prostate cancer cells without causing any damage to the healthy cells. Theranostic NPs have been developed to specifically target the prostate cancer cells using targeting ligands and to release the anticancer agents in a controlled and time-dependent manner for cancer therapy in combination with assisted imaging to monitor the effectiveness of the therapy in real time. The natural products and surface-modified polymers and metallic NPs have evolved as promising nanomaterials for targeted prostate cancer treatment. This review focuses on the role of alternative medicine, polymeric and metallic and metal oxide NPs in prostate cancer theranostics.

Characterization and Antitumor Activity of Chitosan/Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Blend Doped with Gold and Silver Nanoparticles in Treatment of Prostatic Cancer Model

“…Recent advancements in cancer nanotechnology have facilitated a better way to diagnosis and provide therapy for prostate cancer. Nanotechnology has the potential to battle tumors at the site, where the cancer begins [39].…”

“…These NPs can also be surface modified by attaching targeting ligands and tagged with imaging molecules for specificity and effectiveness of the cancer diagnosis and therapeutics [39]. These NPs showed very high affinity and cellular internalization toward prostate cancer cells [47,39]. The anti-androgen gold NPs are a novel approach to overcome the treatment-resistant and hormone-insensitive prostate cancer cells [48].…”

“…On the other hand, The NPs was improved to be toxic to prostatic cancer cells and, radiation sensitive. Neoadjuvant intake of gold NPs proved to stimulate prostatic cancer cells against external beam radiation therapy [58] and to promote in vivo laser photothermal ablation therapy in prostate cancer animal models [39,59]. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have many biomedical applications due to its excellent biocompatibility and antibacterial properties.…”

Mitochondria-Targeted Nanoparticles: A Promising Drug Delivery System

“…Historically, nanotechnology has been perused for enhanced efficacy in treating diseases and/or reducing toxicity of chemotherapeutics. [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79] The efforts are paying off as several nanotechnology-based therapeutics have been approved by the FDA. Liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil ® ) was the first nano-drug approved by the FDA for treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma in 1995.…”

Effect of Baliospermum montanum nanomedicine apoptosis induction and anti-migration of prostate cancer cells

“…Increasing mortality rate in cancer patients has led many researchers to source for potential natural-product based therapeutic compounds. Alternative medicine has evolved as promising nanomaterials and a large number of natural products are being researched as therapeutic targets toward prostate cancer [4]. The solubility issues and the unfavorable biodistribution of these plant-derived compounds in the body are addressed with the recent technological interventions such as nanotechnology [5].…”