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Review
. 2014 Jun;4(3):193-201.
doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2014.03.001. Epub 2014 Apr 5.

Brain tumor-targeted drug delivery strategies

Xiaoli Wei  1 , Xishan Chen  1 , Man Ying  1 , Weiyue Lu  1
Affiliations
Review

Brain tumor-targeted drug delivery strategies

Xiaoli Wei et al. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Despite the application of aggressive surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy in clinics, brain tumors are still a difficult health challenge due to their fast development and poor prognosis. Brain tumor-targeted drug delivery systems, which increase drug accumulation in the tumor region and reduce toxicity in normal brain and peripheral tissue, are a promising new approach to brain tumor treatments. Since brain tumors exhibit many distinctive characteristics relative to tumors growing in peripheral tissues, potential targets based on continuously changing vascular characteristics and the microenvironment can be utilized to facilitate effective brain tumor-targeted drug delivery. In this review, we briefly describe the physiological characteristics of brain tumors, including blood-brain/brain tumor barriers, the tumor microenvironment, and tumor stem cells. We also review targeted delivery strategies and introduce a systematic targeted drug delivery strategy to overcome the challenges.

Keywords: Barriers targeting; Systematic targeted drug delivery; Tumor cells; Tumor microenvironment.

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Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Brain tumor “systematic targeted drug delivery”.
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