Chapter 4 - Ligand-functionalized nanocarrier-based active drugs targeting for liver cancer therapy

Abstract

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death, with 8 million new cases each year. Primary liver cancer is expected to occur at any stage of the life, with a greater prevalence in underdeveloped countries. Surgery, chemotherapy, liver transplantation, and radiofrequency ablation are commonly employed to reduce the bulk of liver tumors. Chemotherapy is the treatment strategy of choice for liver cancer because it is noninvasive and kills the cancer cells. However, the effectiveness of liver cancer chemotherapy is reduced due to such physicochemical and biological barriers as anticancer drugs’ nonspecific biodistribution, poor solubility and pharmacokinetics, early clearance, emergence of resistance, and lower cellular uptake of the drugs by cancer cells. Nanocarriers provide best way for overcoming these barriers, deliver the drugs selectively to tumors in higher concentrations, thus achieving expected clinical outcomes of the chemotherapy with diminished systemic adverse effects. Successful liver cancer chemotherapy can be achieved through receptor-based active drug targeting using surface-functionalized nanocarriers. Liver cancer cells overexpress various receptors such as asialoglycoprotein receptors, glycyrrhetinic acid receptors, factor receptors, density lipoprotein receptors, and transferrin receptors. Various nanocarrier system surfaces functionalized with targeting ligands have been reported for these receptor-based drugs’ active delivery in liver cancer treatments. This chapter describes various approaches to receptor-based anticancer drugs’ selective delivery for improved chemotherapy of liver cancer.