Laboratory of Nanotechnology and Chemical Biology, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, NCR Biotech Science Cluster, 3rd Milestone, Faridabad-Gurgaon Expressway, Faridabad-121001, Haryana, India.
Biomater Sci. 2020 Apr 15;8(8):2055-2073. doi: 10.1039/d0bm00146e.
Non-specific toxicity of chemotherapeutics and evolution of malignant tumors against them are major challenges for existing cancer chemotherapeutic regimens. Engineering of nanomaterials has attempted to minimize the toxicity of anticancer drugs, but systemic delivery of these nanomaterials still imposes many hurdles in their clinical use like burst release of chemotherapeutics and toxicity and immunogenicity associated with excipients of nanomaterials. However, there has been a surge in the development of natural and synthetic nanomaterials to deliver anticancer agents to the diseased (tumor) site as it can minimize the systemic circulation of anticancer drugs and reduce the toxicity-related challenges. Therefore, localized drug delivery is considered as the most effective way to deliver therapeutics but is further challenged by poor biodegradability, high immunogenicity, poor drug entrapment efficacy and inability to maintain sustained release of anticancer agents at the tumor site. This review maps out recent advancements in engineering of low molecular weight hydrogels derived from amino acid, fatty acyl, steroidal lipid and drug conjugated amphiphilic scaffolds. We have summarized the efforts for the development of molecular hydrogels in terms of biocompatibility, therapeutic potential and challenges associated with existing molecular hydrogels for cancer therapy.
化疗药物的非特异性毒性和恶性肿瘤对它们的进化是现有癌症化疗方案的主要挑战。纳米材料的工程设计试图最小化抗癌药物的毒性，但这些纳米材料的系统输送仍然在其临床应用中带来了许多障碍，如抗癌药物的爆发释放以及与纳米材料赋形剂相关的毒性和免疫原性。然而，已经出现了大量天然和合成纳米材料的开发，以将抗癌剂递送到患病（肿瘤）部位，因为它可以最小化抗癌药物的全身循环，并减少与毒性相关的挑战。因此，局部药物输送被认为是递送治疗剂的最有效方法，但由于低生物降解性、高免疫原性、差的药物包封效率和无法在肿瘤部位维持抗癌剂的持续释放，这一方法进一步受到挑战。本综述概述了源自氨基酸、脂肪酸酰基、甾体脂质和药物共轭两亲性支架的低分子量水凝胶的工程学最新进展。我们总结了在生物相容性、治疗潜力以及与癌症治疗现有分子水凝胶相关的挑战方面，分子水凝胶的发展努力。
