iBB-Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
Associate Laboratory i4HB-Institute for Health and Bioeconomy, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
Molecules. 2022 Feb 1;27(3):991. doi: 10.3390/molecules27030991.
Cancer is the second most common cause of death worldwide, having its origin in the abnormal growth of cells. Available chemotherapeutics still present major drawbacks, usually associated with high toxicity and poor distribution, with only a small fraction of drugs reaching the tumour sites. Thus, it is urgent to develop novel therapeutic strategies. Cancer cells can reprogram their lipid metabolism to sustain uncontrolled proliferation, and, therefore, accumulate a higher amount of lipid droplets (LDs). LDs are cytoplasmic organelles that store neutral lipids and are hypothesized to sequester anti-cancer drugs, leading to reduced efficacy. Thus, the increased biogenesis of LDs in neoplastic conditions makes them suitable targets for anticancer therapy and for the development of new dyes for cancer cells imaging. In recent years, cancer nanotherapeutics offered some exciting possibilities, including improvement tumour detection and eradication. In this review we summarize LDs biogenesis, structure and composition, and highlight their role in cancer theranostics.
癌症是全球第二大常见死因，其起源于细胞的异常生长。现有的化疗药物仍然存在主要缺陷，通常与高毒性和分布不良有关，只有一小部分药物能到达肿瘤部位。因此，迫切需要开发新的治疗策略。癌细胞可以重新编程其脂质代谢以维持不受控制的增殖，因此，会积累更多的脂滴（LDs）。LDs 是储存中性脂质的细胞质细胞器，据推测它们可以隔离抗癌药物，导致疗效降低。因此，在肿瘤条件下 LDs 的大量生物合成使它们成为抗癌治疗的合适靶点，并为癌症细胞成像开发新的染料。近年来，癌症纳米治疗提供了一些令人兴奋的可能性，包括提高肿瘤检测和消除的可能性。在这篇综述中，我们总结了 LDs 的生物发生、结构和组成，并强调了它们在癌症治疗中的作用。
