UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Carolina Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Clin Cancer Res. 2012 Jun 15;18(12):3229-41. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-2938. Epub 2012 Jun 5.
Historically, treatment of patients with cancer using chemotherapeutic agents has been associated with debilitating and systemic toxicities, poor bioavailability, and unfavorable pharmacokinetics. Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems, on the other hand, can specifically target cancer cells while avoiding their healthy neighbors, avoid rapid clearance from the body, and be administered without toxic solvents. They hold immense potential in addressing all of these issues, which has hampered further development of chemotherapeutics. Furthermore, such drug delivery systems will lead to cancer therapeutic modalities that are not only less toxic to the patient but also significantly more efficacious. In addition to established therapeutic modes of action, nanomaterials are opening up entirely new modalities of cancer therapy, such as photodynamic and hyperthermia treatments. Furthermore, nanoparticle carriers are also capable of addressing several drug delivery problems that could not be effectively solved in the past and include overcoming formulation issues, multidrug-resistance phenomenon, and penetrating cellular barriers that may limit device accessibility to intended targets, such as the blood-brain barrier. The challenges in optimizing design of nanoparticles tailored to specific tumor indications still remain; however, it is clear that nanoscale devices carry a significant promise toward new ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. This review focuses on future prospects of using nanotechnology in cancer applications and discusses practices and methodologies used in the development and translation of nanotechnology-based therapeutics.
从历史上看，使用化疗药物治疗癌症患者会导致身体虚弱和全身性毒性、生物利用度差和药代动力学不理想。另一方面，基于纳米技术的药物输送系统可以特异性地靶向癌细胞，同时避免对其健康的邻居造成伤害，避免从体内迅速清除，并可在没有有毒溶剂的情况下给药。它们在解决所有这些问题方面具有巨大的潜力，这阻碍了化疗药物的进一步发展。此外，这种药物输送系统将导致癌症治疗方法不仅对患者的毒性更小，而且效果显著更好。除了既定的治疗作用模式外，纳米材料还开辟了全新的癌症治疗模式，如光动力和热疗。此外，纳米颗粒载体还能够解决过去无法有效解决的一些药物输送问题，包括克服制剂问题、多药耐药现象以及穿透细胞屏障，这些可能会限制器械到达预期靶点的能力，如血脑屏障。针对特定肿瘤适应症的纳米粒子的优化设计仍然存在挑战；然而，很明显，纳米级设备为癌症的诊断和治疗提供了新的途径。本文综述了纳米技术在癌症应用中的未来前景，并讨论了纳米技术治疗药物开发和转化中使用的实践和方法。
