Nanoparticle-based materials in anticancer drug delivery: Current and future prospects

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed a breakthrough in novel strategies to treat cancer. One of the most common cancer treatment modalities is chemotherapy which involves administering anti-cancer drugs to the body. However, these drugs can lead to undesirable side effects on healthy cells. To overcome this challenge and improve cancer cell targeting, many novel nanocarriers have been developed to deliver drugs directly to the cancerous cells and minimize effects on the healthy tissues. The majority of the research studies conclude that using drugs encapsulated in nanocarriers is a much safer and more effective alternative than delivering the drug alone in its free form. This review provides a summary of the types of nanocarriers mainly studied for cancer drug delivery, namely: liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, magnetic nanoparticles, mesoporous nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and quantum dots. In this review, the synthesis, applications, advantages, disadvantages, and previous studies of these nanomaterials are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the future opportunities and possible challenges of translating these materials into clinical applications are also reported.

Keywords: Cancer therapy; Drug delivery; Nanocarriers; Nanomaterials; Nanomedicine.

Fig. 1

Nano-systems used in cancer drug delivery.

Fig. 2

Enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect.

Fig. 3

Structure of a liposome. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [12], S. Ajith, “A novel cancer treatment platform utilizing HER2-immunoliposomes and ultrasound,” Dept. Chem. Eng., American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE, 2020.

Fig. 4

Drug-loaded polymeric micelle formed by self -assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers.

Fig. 5

Structure of dendrimer with the encapsulated drug. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [111], Din et al., “Effective use of nanocarriers as drug delivery systems for the treatment of selected tumors,” Int J Nanomed., vol. 12, pp. 7291–7309, 2017.

Fig. 6

Types of theragnostic dendrimers. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [120], Saluja et al., “Dendrimers based cancer nanotheranostics: An overview,” Int. J. Pharm., vol. 600, pp. 120485, 2021.

Fig. 7

(a)Diagram of magnetic nanoparticle with multi-functional surface molecules. (b)Illustration of SPIONS response to a magnetic field. The circular dashed lines represent randomization in the absence of a magnetic field. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [8], Cole et al., “Cancer theranostics: the rise of targeted magnetic nanoparticles,” Trends Biotechnol, vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 323–332, Jul. 2011.

Fig. 8

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles as seen under a) Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and b) Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Reprinted with permission from Ref. [166], Alfawaz et al., “Surface functionalization of mesoporous silica nanoparticles with Brønsted acids as a catalyst for esterification reaction,” J. King Saud Univ. Sci., vol. 34, no. 5, p. 102106, Jul. 2022.

Fig. 9

a) Turkevich method for AuNP synthesis, b) Brust method for AuNP synthesis. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [21], Amina et al., “A Review on the Synthesis and Functionalization of Gold Nanoparticles as a Drug Delivery Vehicle,” IJN, vol. 15, pp. 9823–9857, Dec. 2020

Fig. 10

Illustration of tumor-targeted drug delivery using carbon nanotubes. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [222], Raphey et al., “Advanced biomedical applications of carbon nanotube,” Mater. Sci. Eng. C, vol. 100, pp. 616–630, Jul. 2019.

Fig. 11

Structure of semiconductor quantum dot. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [234], Gidwani et al., “Quantum dots: Prospectives, toxicity, advances and applications,” J Drug Deliv Sci Technol, vol. 61, p. 102308, Feb. 2021.

Fig. 12

Cumulative percentage release of drug from nanohydrogels a) at varying temperatures, b) at 30 °C, c) at 37 °C, and d) at 40 °C. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [241], Havanur et al., “Poly (N,N-diethyl acrylamide)/functionalized graphene quantum dots hydrogels loaded with doxorubicin as a nano-drug carrier for metastatic lung cancer in mice,” Mater. Sci. Eng. C, vol. 105, p. 110094, Dec. 2019.