Research progress of co-delivery nanoparticle drug delivery systems in non-small cell lung cancer: A review

Abstract

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as the most commonly diagnosed type of lung cancer, has long been a major focus for cancer drug researchers. Traditional chemotherapy has shown significant efficacy in patients initially diagnosed with NSCLC; however, with the emergence of drug resistance and notable toxic side effects, conventional and single-agent chemotherapy can no longer meet the treatment needs of patients. Nanomedicine systems have gained widespread attention among scholars due to their unique advantages, such as particle size, stable in vivo circulation, and multifunctional carrier materials. However, most single-drug delivery systems fail to meet the treatment expectations for NSCLC patients, prompting the active development of co-delivery nanomedicine systems in preclinical NSCLC research. These systems can utilize surface-modified carriers to co-deliver drugs, genes, photosensitizers, or sonosensitizers with different mechanisms of action. This approach not only achieves the synergistic effects of multiple drugs, multiple pathways, and the combination of chemotherapy with photodynamic/sonodynamic therapy but also, through the encapsulation of inorganic materials, allows for more controllable drug release under external forces such as magnetic fields. This further amplifies the synergistic effects between the drugs, and the results of these studies are significantly superior to those of single-drug treatments. In conclusion, this review summarizes the delivery strategies and the extended use of inorganic materials in the co-delivery of nanoparticles for NSCLC research in recent years, with the hope of providing reference for researchers' drug design strategies.

Keywords: Co-delivery drug formulation; Co-delivery strategies; Inorganic carrier; NSCLC; Targeted modification.