Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor and Double-Imprinted Nanoparticles for Targeted Cancer Drug Delivery - A Review

Abstract

The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) plays a crucial role in maintaining tissue balance, but in conditions like tumors or lung and skin cancer, it acts as a driver for cancer development. Nanoparticles are effective tools for delivering medications to tumor cells while minimizing drug impact on healthy cells. A potent therapeutic approach involves using nanoparticles with tumor-specific ligands for cancer treatment. This review study focuses on double-imprinted nanoparticles, synthesized to target the estrogen alpha cancer cell receptor's linear epitope and loaded with an anti-cancer drug. The challenge in cancer therapy is delivering drugs specifically to cancer cells without causing adverse effects on healthy cells. Advanced high-throughput technologies generate genomic and epigenomic data, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification in cancer genomics identifies new indicators, drug targets, and cancer transport genetics. The EGFR-SVM approach is designed to enhance the selectivity and reduce the toxicity of cytotoxic drugs by targeting cancer cells more specifically. Targeted treatment involves interfering with specific proteins that promote tumor growth and spread, and the study demonstrates a molecularly targeted drug delivery method for efficiently and selectively targeting anticancer drugs to tumor cells overexpressing EGFR. This approach has the potential to improve the therapeutic effectiveness of existing anticancer drugs.