Abstract
Cancer is a life-threatening disease, contributing approximately 9.4 million deaths worldwide. To address this challenge, scientific researchers have investigated molecules that could act as speed-breakers for cancer. As an abiotic drug delivery system, liposomes can hold both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs, which promote a controlled release, accumulate in the tumor microenvironment, and achieve elongated half-life with an enhanced safety profile. To further improve the safety and impair the off-target effect, the surface of liposomes could be modified in a way that is easily identified by cancer cells, promotes uptake, and facilitates angiogenesis. Integrins are overexpressed on cancer cells, which upon activation promote downstream cell signaling and eventually activate specific pathways, promoting cell growth, proliferation, and migration. RGD peptides are easily recognized by integrin over expressed cells. Just like a multistage rocket, ligand anchored liposomes can be selectively recognized by target cells, accumulate at the specific site, and finally, release the drug in a specific and desired way. This review highlights the role of integrin in cancer development, so gain more insights into the phenomenon of tumor initiation and survival. Since RGD is recognized by the integrin family, the fate of RGD has been demonstrated after its binding with the acceptor’s family. The role of RGD based liposomes in targeting various cancer cells is also highlighted in the paper.
Highlights
Since the discovery of liposomes in the 1960s they have contributed to a growth in the drug development industry owing to their unique characteristics such as bio-degradability, biocompatibility, lack of immune system activation, low toxicity, and capability to incorporate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs
This review sheds light on integrin-targeted cancer cells using liposomal preparations functionalized by RGD peptide motifs for attaining the targeted effect
In a similar study by another research group, pH sensitive DTX loaded liposomes decorated with PEG linked RGD peptide as targeting ligand have been investigated using a different polymer, Linoleic acid (LA)
Summary
Since the discovery of liposomes in the 1960s they have contributed to a growth in the drug development industry owing to their unique characteristics such as bio-degradability, biocompatibility, lack of immune system activation, low toxicity, and capability to incorporate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. This review sheds light on integrin-targeted cancer cells using liposomal preparations functionalized by RGD peptide motifs for attaining the targeted effect. In a similar study by another research group, pH sensitive DTX loaded liposomes decorated with PEG linked RGD peptide as targeting ligand have been investigated using a different polymer, Linoleic acid (LA).
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