TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanomedicines as cancer therapeutics
T2 - Current status
AU - Akhter, Sohail
AU - Ahmad, Iqbal
AU - Ahmad, Mohammad Zaki
AU - Ramzani, Farshad
AU - Singh, Anjali
AU - Rahman, Ziyaur
AU - Ahmad, Farhan Jalees
AU - Storm, Gerrit
AU - Kok, Robbert J.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - As of 21st century, cancer is arguably the most complex and challenging disease known to mankind and an inevitable public health concern of this millennium. Nanotechnology, suitably amalgamated with cancer research, has ushered an era of highly personalized and safer medicines which can improve cancer diagnosis and therapy. A wide variety of nanomedicines are currently under investigation, including polymeric/non-polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, lipid- and micelle-based nanoparticles. The bases of these nanomedicines in reducing toxicity associated with cancer therapy are their ability to carry a large payload and multivalent-ligand targeting. This imparts specificity for targeting the tissues as well as bypass resistance mechanisms. The major hurdles on these future medicines are potential toxicity of nanoparticles, which imposes the need of extensive regulatory evaluation before nanomedicines could be utilized as cancer therapeutics. This review highlights nanopharmaceuticals that have been investigated in oncology for various applications (diagnosis, therapeutic delivery and theranostics). It also discusses the effects of nano-sized materials on tissues/organ functions, the possibility of overcoming multi-drug resistance by using nanomedicines and their current clinical status.
AB - As of 21st century, cancer is arguably the most complex and challenging disease known to mankind and an inevitable public health concern of this millennium. Nanotechnology, suitably amalgamated with cancer research, has ushered an era of highly personalized and safer medicines which can improve cancer diagnosis and therapy. A wide variety of nanomedicines are currently under investigation, including polymeric/non-polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, lipid- and micelle-based nanoparticles. The bases of these nanomedicines in reducing toxicity associated with cancer therapy are their ability to carry a large payload and multivalent-ligand targeting. This imparts specificity for targeting the tissues as well as bypass resistance mechanisms. The major hurdles on these future medicines are potential toxicity of nanoparticles, which imposes the need of extensive regulatory evaluation before nanomedicines could be utilized as cancer therapeutics. This review highlights nanopharmaceuticals that have been investigated in oncology for various applications (diagnosis, therapeutic delivery and theranostics). It also discusses the effects of nano-sized materials on tissues/organ functions, the possibility of overcoming multi-drug resistance by using nanomedicines and their current clinical status.
KW - Cancer nanomedicine
KW - Multi-drug resistance
KW - Nanotechnology
KW - Nanotoxicity
KW - Regulatory
KW - Theranostics
U2 - 10.2174/1568009611313040002
DO - 10.2174/1568009611313040002
M3 - Article
SN - 1568-0096
VL - 13
SP - 362
EP - 378
JO - Current cancer drug targets
JF - Current cancer drug targets
IS - 4
ER -