Review of recent preclinical and clinical research on ligand-targeted liposomes as delivery systems in triple negative breast cancer therapy

Abstract

Triple-negative breast Cancer (TNBC) is one of the deadliest types, making up about 20% of all breast cancers. Chemotherapy is the traditional manner of progressed TNBC treatment; however, it has a short-term result with a high reversibility pace. The lack of targeted treatment limited and person-dependent treatment options for those suffering from TNBC cautions to be the worst type of cancer among breast cancer patients. Consequently, appropriate treatment for this disease is considered a major clinical challenge. Therefore, various treatment methods have been developed to treat TNBC, among which chemotherapy is the most common and well-known approach recently studied. Although effective methods are chemotherapies, they are often accompanied by critical limitations, especially the lack of specific functionality. These methods lead to systematic toxicity and, ultimately, the expansion of multidrug-resistant (MDR) cancer cells. Therefore, finding novel and efficient techniques to enhance the targeting of TNBC treatment is an essential requirement. Liposomes have demonstrated that they are an effective method for drug delivery; however, among a large number of liposome-based drug delivery systems annually developed, a small number have just received authorization for clinical application. The new approaches to using liposomes target their structure with various ligands to increase therapeutic efficiency and diminish undesired side effects on various body tissues. The current study describes the most recent strategies and research associated with functionalizing the liposomes' structure with different ligands as targeted drug carriers in treating TNBCs in preclinical and clinical stages.

Keywords: Triple negative breast cancer; drug carriers; ligand-targeted liposomes; liposome.