Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua, Viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy.
Department of Biochemical Sciences, A. Rossi Fanelli', Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Biomolecules. 2020 May 8;10(5):735. doi: 10.3390/biom10050735.
The blooming of nanotechnology has made available a limitless landscape of solutions responding to crucial issues in many fields and, nowadays, a wide choice of nanotechnology-based strategies can be adopted to circumvent the limitations of conventional therapies for cancer. Herein, the current stage of nanotechnological applications for cancer management is summarized encompassing the core nanomaterials as well as the available chemical-physical approaches for their surface functionalization and drug ligands as possible therapeutic agents. The use of nanomaterials as vehicles to delivery various therapeutic substances is reported emphasizing advantages, such as the high drug loading, the enhancement of the pay-load half-life and bioavailability. Particular attention was dedicated to highlight the importance of nanomaterial intrinsic features. Indeed, the ability of combining the properties of the transported drug with the ones of the nano-sized carrier can lead to multifunctional theranostic tools. In this view, fluorescence of carbon quantum dots, optical properties of gold nanoparticle and superparamagnetism of iron oxide nanoparticles, are fundamental examples. Furthermore, smart anticancer devices can be developed by conjugating enzymes to nanoparticles, as in the case of bovine serum amine oxidase (BSAO) and gold nanoparticles. The present review is aimed at providing an overall vision on nanotechnological strategies to face the threat of human cancer, comprising opportunities and challenges.
纳米技术的蓬勃发展为解决许多领域的关键问题提供了无限的解决方案，如今，人们可以采用广泛的基于纳米技术的策略来规避传统癌症疗法的局限性。本文总结了当前癌症管理中纳米技术应用的现状，包括核心纳米材料以及它们表面功能化和药物配体的可用化学物理方法作为可能的治疗剂。本文还报告了将纳米材料用作输送各种治疗物质的载体的用途，强调了高药物负载、提高有效载荷半衰期和生物利用度等优点。本文特别关注了突出纳米材料固有特性的重要性。事实上，将所输送药物的性质与纳米载体的性质相结合的能力可以导致多功能治疗诊断工具。在这方面，碳量子点的荧光、金纳米颗粒的光学性质和氧化铁纳米颗粒的超顺磁性就是基本的例子。此外，可以通过将酶与纳米颗粒偶联来开发智能抗癌设备，就像牛血清胺氧化酶（BSAO）和金纳米颗粒那样。本文综述旨在提供一种全面的视角，了解应对人类癌症威胁的纳米技术策略，包括机遇和挑战。
