Enabling anticancer therapeutics by nanoparticle carriers: the delivery of Paclitaxel

Abstract

Anticancer drugs, such as paclitaxel (PTX), are indispensable for the treatment of a variety of malignancies. However, the application of most drugs is greatly limited by the low water solubility, poor permeability, or high efflux from cells. Nanoparticles have been widely investigated to enable drug delivery due to their low toxicity, sustained drug release, molecular targeting, and additional therapeutic and imaging functions. This review takes paclitaxel as an example and compares different nanoparticle-based delivery systems for their effectiveness in cancer chemotherapy.

Keywords: anticancer drugs; drug carrier; drug delivery; nanomaterials; paclitaxel.

Figure 1

Structure of paclitaxel.

Figure 2

Schematic diagram illustrating the concept of the functionalized CNT-QD as biomarkers and drug carriers (reproduced with permission from [35]^© 2008, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA).

Figure 3

PTX release from the PTX-Fe-NPs through hydrolysis of the phosphodiester chemical bonds (reproduced with permission from [49]^© 2009, American Chemical Society).

Figure 4

Schematic diagram of the iron oxide nanoparticles (reproduced with permission from [50]^© 2005, American Chemical Society).

Figure 5

Schematic diagrams illustrating surface functionalization of superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles: (a) carboxyl functionalization using carboxyl terminated PLGA on the surface of QD-MNSs with PTX loading; (b) amine functionalization by conjugation of ethylenediamine to the surface of carboxylate-functionalized PTX-PLGA-QD-MNSs using conventional NHS/EDC coupling method; (c) conjugation of anti-PSMA to the PTX-PLGA-QD-MNSs, and (d) new multifunctional (fluorescent imaging, targeting, hyperthermia, and chemotherapy) nanocarrier system (reproduced with permission from [52]^© 2010, American Chemical Society).

Figure 6

The hypothetical structure of PTX/HAuNS-MSs and the proposed release mechanism triggered by NIR-laser. PTX uniformly dispersed in the PLGA, HAuNSs are dispersed in the water phase within the microspheres (reproduced with permission from [57]^© 2010, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA).

Figure 7

NIR-light-triggered release of PTX from PTX/HAuNS-MSs. PTX-MSs (•) without laser irradiation released only 3.6% PTX; PTX-MSs without HAuNSs released less than 7% PTX under NIR expose. The PTX/HAuNSMSs have higher release speed when exposed to NIR irradiation, but when the NIR irradiation was turned off the release speed became very low. And the total release of the PTX was cumulative according to the power of the NIR light (reproduced with permission from [57]^© 2010, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA).

Figure 8

Schematic illustration of the photoinduced intracellular controlled Release of PR-AuNPs-MSN (reproduced with permission [58]^© 2009, American Chemical Society).

Scheme 1

Synthesis of multimodal iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) (reproduced with permission from [46]^© 2009, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA).