Fereshteh Alizadeh,1,*
1. Phd student of Nanobiotechnology, Department of Nanobiotechnology, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University
Introduction: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Common methods of cancer treatment include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy and surgery. The limitation of these methods is the poor accessibility of antineoplastic agents to the tumor, demanding higher doses, and the nonselective nature of these agents causes severe toxicity. Thus, Therefore, targeted drug delivery has attracted the attention of many researchers because it provided the selection of effective drug concentrations at the tumor site. Targeted drug delivery reduces drug side effects by reducing drug concentration in non-specific tissues. Recent advances in nanobiotechnology have led to the use of various nanocarriers such as liposomes, micelles, nanotubes, nanorods, dendrimers and nanoparticles as drug delivery systems for the delivery of chemotherapy drugs. Tumor targeting is classified into passive and active targeting. Passive targeting includes enhanced permeability and retention effect (EPR) due to formation of hyper-permeable complex tumor vasculature characterized by impaired lymphatic drainage of diseased tissue (tumor), resulting in the extravasation of ≥100 nm nanoparticles into the tumor microenvironment and preventing their clearance. Active targeting strategy is based on the composition decoration of the surface of drug carriers with tumor-specific ligands such as aptamers, antibodies and receptors overexpressed by the tumor cell. Stimuli-based drug delivery systems is classified into physical and chemical. Physical Stimuli-Responsive Drug Delivery Systems is based on Thermoresponsive, Magnetic/Electric Field-Responsive, Ultrasound-Responsive and Light-Responsive drug Delivery Systems. Chemical Stimuli-Responsive Drug Delivery Systems is based on pH Responsive and Enzymes-Responsive drug Delivery Systems.
Methods: This review article has been collected from reliable scientific sources and is the result of studying many researches of the authors.
Results: Recently, targeted drug delivery systems have made significant progress. These systems have attracted a lot of attention by reducing drug dosage, targeted drug delivery and reducing side effects. Different nanostructures with unique physical and chemical properties are used as nanocarriers.
Conclusion: In the future research related to targeted drug delivery systems, attention should be paid to the proper size of the system, its surface charge, sterilization and its similarity to the biological membrane. Examining molecular docking and system modeling is also essential for process optimization. In addition, a complete understanding of the cancer microenvironment and the characteristics of cancer cells is necessary for safer and more effective treatment.
Keywords: Cancer therapy, Drug delivery, Nanostructure, Nanotechnology.