Recent advances of nanocrystals in cancer theranostics

Abstract

Emerging cancer cases across the globe and treating them with conventional therapies with multiple limitations have been challenging for decades. Novel drug delivery systems and alternative theranostics are required for efficient detection and treatment. Nanocrystals (NCs) have been established as a significant cancer diagnosis and therapeutic tool due to their ability to deliver poorly water-soluble drugs with sustained release, low toxicity, and flexibility in the route of administration, long-term sustainable drug release, and noncomplicated excretion. This review summarizes several therapies of NCs, including anticancer, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, biotheranostics, targeted therapy, photothermal, and photodynamic. Further, different imaging and diagnostics using NCs are mentioned, including imaging, diagnosis through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), biosensing, and luminescence. In addition, the limitations and potential solutions of NCs in the field of cancer theranostics are discussed. Preclinical and clinical data depicting the importance of NCs in the spotlight of cancer, its current status, future aspects, and challenges are covered in detail.

Fig. 1. Types of nanocrystals; figure is created with https://www.BioRender.com.

Fig. 2. Applications of nanocrystals in cancer theranostics. The figure is created with https://www.BioRender.com.

Fig. 3. Fabrication of NCs to target tumor cells after intravenous injection into the mice model. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2022, Pharmaceutics.

Fig. 4. (A) Preparation of targeted RBC-NC. (B) Short-term serum stability study. (C–E) TEM images. (F–H) Long-term stability study of different DTX formulations. (I–K) In vitro drug release from different DTX formulations. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2019, ACS Nano.

Fig. 5. Hyaluronic acid-coated camptothecin (CPT) NCs with its mechanism to treat cancer. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2020, Molecular Pharmaceutics.

Fig. 6. (A) Synthetic process of biomineralized NCs. (B) In vivo chemoimmunotherapy/chemodynamics of NCs in combination with DSF and aPD-L1. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2022, Advance Materials.

Fig. 7. T cell therapy by loading of SHP2 inhibitor NCs. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2022, ACS Nano.

Fig. 8. Synthesis of NCs for effective synergistic hydrogen/photodynamic therapy. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2020, Advance Functional Materials.

Fig. 9. Synthesis process of HfO₂ NCs and enhanced radiotherapy performance against the tumor. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2020, Biomaterials.

Fig. 10. Autofluorescence-free detection of lysozyme using the NCs scintillator-based aptasensor. Reprinted with permission from ref. . Copyright 2019, Analytical Chemistry.

Devyani Yenurkar

Malay Nayak

Sudip Mukherjee