Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) plays important roles in various physiological and pathological functions and processes in the human body. Therapeutic application of NO molecules has been investigated in various diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infections. However, the extremely short half-life of NO, which limits its clinical use considerably, along with non-specific distribution, has resulted in a low therapeutic index and undesired adverse effects. To overcome the drawbacks of using this gaseous signaling molecule, researchers in the last several decades have focused on innovative medical technologies, specifically nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems (DDSs), because these systems alter the biodistribution of the therapeutic agent through controlled release at the target tissues, resulting in a significant therapeutic drug effect. Thus, the application of nano-systems for NO delivery in the field of biomedicine, particularly in the development of new drugs for cancer treatment, has been increasing worldwide. In this review, we discuss NO delivery nanoparticle systems, with the aim of improving drug delivery development for conventional chemotherapies and controlling multidrug resistance in cancer treatments.
Highlights
[24,25], their therapeutic half an hour in aqueous media [28,29]. They succeeded in sustaining the release of Nitric oxide (NO) by efficiencies are not always satisfactory owing to low biological stability and non-specific dispersion, encapsulating the stable N-diazeniumdiolate in a liposomal nanoparticle in phosphate buffer saline resulting in low bioavailability of these low-molecular-weight (LMW) agents in vivo
NO is reported to inhibit the activation of HIF-1α or destabilize the dimerization of HIF-1α/β, which leads to the reversal of the multidrug resistance (MDR) effect [74,75,76]
We have explained the nanoengineering of NO gas to control tumoral angiogenesis, MDR, hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) expression, the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, and apoptosis
Summary
Nitric oxide (NO), an important cellular signaling gaseous molecule that diffuses in a biological environment, plays multifunctional roles in physiological and pathological processes. NO controls blood flow and angiogenesis and plays a role in behavior and cognition functions as an important neurotransmitter [3,4]. In pathological conditions, such as inflammation and cancer, the activated macrophages elevate the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) with a strong ability to produce NO and regulate immune. We focus on the biofunctional action of NO in cancer therapeutics, and various NO delivery nano-systems are presented, with the goal of improving the efficiency of cancer treatment
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