Nanomaterials for cancer therapy: current progress and perspectives

Zhe Cheng,Raja Dey,Maoyu Li,Yongheng Chen

doi:10.1186/s13045-021-01096-0

Abstract

Cancer is a disease with complex pathological process. Current chemotherapy faces problems such as lack of specificity, cytotoxicity, induction of multi-drug resistance and stem-like cells growth. Nanomaterials are materials in the nanorange 1–100 nm which possess unique optical, magnetic, and electrical properties. Nanomaterials used in cancer therapy can be classified into several main categories. Targeting cancer cells, tumor microenvironment, and immune system, these nanomaterials have been modified for a wide range of cancer therapies to overcome toxicity and lack of specificity, enhance drug capacity as well as bioavailability. Although the number of studies has been increasing, the number of approved nano-drugs has not increased much over the years. To better improve clinical translation, further research is needed for targeted drug delivery by nano-carriers to reduce toxicity, enhance permeability and retention effects, and minimize the shielding effect of protein corona. This review summarizes novel nanomaterials fabricated in research and clinical use, discusses current limitations and obstacles that hinder the translation from research to clinical use, and provides suggestions for more efficient adoption of nanomaterials in cancer therapy.

Highlights

Despite significant advances in medical science and technology, cancer remains a disease with limited treatment approaches
Hadla et al used exosomes loaded with DOX to treat human breast cancer cells and the result showed that compared with free DOX, exoDOX enhances the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin and avoid drug accumulation in the heart [36]
The results showed that this graphene oxide (GO)-peptide nanoassembly effectively induced toxicity in the prostate cancer cells, blocked the cell migration, and inhibited prostaglandin-mediated inflammation in protein corona (PC)-3 and Human retinal endothelial cells (HREC)

Summary

Introduction

Despite significant advances in medical science and technology, cancer remains a disease with limited treatment approaches. The high surfaceto-volume ratio of some nanomaterials can assemble with biomolecules or residues, which can enhance the specificity of chemical drug complex in targeted therapy, thereby enhancing the efficacy of nanomaterial-based treatment while reducing its toxicity to normal cells [21]. Use of ultrasound in NP manufacture helps enhance efficacy of drug delivery, leads to reduction of side effects through improved traversing ability to overcome the barriers in cancer therapy.

Results

Conclusion