7 - Cancer-targeted chemotherapy: Emerging role of the folate anchored dendrimer as drug delivery nanocarrier

Abstract

Cancer is a disease which is affecting a large part of the population irrespective of caste, creed, age, and geography. Cancer has a high degree of progression from one part to another making its treatment quite challenging. Diverse types of cancer exhibit different physiological conditions rendering them the complexity in treatment. Thus, extensive researches are being conducted to cure cancer. There are various treatment approaches available to combat against cancer, but still, these prevalent therapies are incapable to cure it completely. The conventional therapy of cancer has limitations with regard to specificity or selectivity. Thus, the novel targeted therapeutic approach for treating cancer is warranted to provide targeted delivery of therapeutic drugs. To develop this mode of treatment, the area of nanotechnology is being explored to form targeted nanomedicine for drug delivery. There are a variety of nanocarriers such as liposomes, polymeric micelles, quantum dots, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, gold nanocarriers, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, etc. have been constructed. Amongst these Nanosystems, dendrimers represent one of the most explored and potential scaffolds for an anticancer drug. This chapter discusses cancer, dendrimer and its relevance in cancer therapy. This chapter also elaborates views on the development and utilization of folate-targeted dendrimer for cancer therapy and diagnostic applications.