The Therapeutic Efficacy of Dendrimer and Micelle Formulations for Breast Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Breast cancer is among the most common types of cancer in women and it is the cause of a high rate of mortality globally. The use of anticancer drugs is the standard treatment approach used for this type of cancer. However, most of these drugs are limited by multi-drug resistance, drug toxicity, poor drug bioavailability, low water solubility, poor pharmacokinetics, etc. To overcome multi-drug resistance, combinations of two or more anticancer drugs are used. However, the combination of two or more anticancer drugs produce toxic side effects. Micelles and dendrimers are promising drug delivery systems that can overcome the limitations associated with the currently used anticancer drugs. They have the capability to overcome drug resistance, reduce drug toxicity, improve the drug solubility and bioavailability. Different classes of anticancer drugs have been loaded into micelles and dendrimers, resulting in targeted drug delivery, sustained drug release mechanism, increased cellular uptake, reduced toxic side effects of the loaded drugs with enhanced anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo. This review article reports the biological outcomes of dendrimers and micelles loaded with different known anticancer agents on breast cancer in vitro and in vivo.

Nanomedicine-Based Delivery Strategies for Breast Cancer Treatment and Management

“…Polylysine (PLL) is an amphiphilic dendrimer with a branched structure made up of Penta-functional central molecules that are made up of positively charged essential amino acids, including lysine-amino-alanine, and are a fascinating new class of molecules because of their small size and natural components, which allow them to be internalized more readily than synthetic molecules [ 88 ]. The therapeutic efficacy of dendrimers and micelles for breast cancer treatment was reviewed by Sibusiso Alven et al [ 89 ]. The latter demonstrated how they could resolve drug resistance, decrease drug toxicity, and increase drug solubility and bioavailability.…”

“…Micelles are colloidal particles around 5–100 nm that are currently under investigation as carriers for hydrophobic drugs in anticancer therapy and have excellent tumor-targeted delivery properties, making them a feasible drug delivery mechanism with high translational potential [ 89 ].…”

Smart Nanocarriers as an Emerging Platform for Cancer Therapy: A Review

“…In active targeting of tumour cells, several kinds of ligands, such as aptamers, peptides, antibodies, carbohydrates, folic acid, etc., are utilized to decorate the micelle surface. The stimuli-based micelle drug delivery systems are based on enzymes, ultrasound, temperature changes, PH gradient and oxidation [ 56 ]. To enhance intracellular uptake, a variety of functional groups can be attached to the micelle’s hydrophilic end.…”

Synthesis of Functional Building Blocks for Type III-B Rotaxane Dendrimer

“…Such functional dendrons can be the dendrimer building blocks, anchoring to other core materials such as nanoparticles [31,32], functional surfaces [33] or biomolecules through biorthogonal click chemistry or nucleophilic reactions [34]. It is necessary to assess the normal cell viability of such building blocks of rotaxane dendrimers before employing them as potential drug carriers [27,29] for cancer treatments [35][36][37][38][39], mainly based on enhancing the drug's stability, lesion site targeting and prolonged drug release.…”