The use of nanoparticles in oncology to deliver chemotherapeutic agents has received considerable attention in the last decades due to their tendency to be passively accumulated in solid tumors. Besides this remarkable property, the surface of these nanocarriers can be decorated with targeting moieties capable to recognize malignant cells which lead to selective nanoparticle uptake mainly in the diseased cells, without affecting the healthy ones. Among the different nanocarriers which have been developed with this purpose, inorganic porous nanomaterials constitute some of the most interesting due to their unique properties such as excellent cargo capacity, high biocompatibility and chemical, thermal and mechanical robustness, among others. Additionally, these materials can be engineered to present an exquisite control in the drug release behavior placing stimuli‐responsive pore‐blockers or sensitive hybrid coats on their surface. Herein, the recent advances developed in the use of porous inorganic nanomedicines will be described in order to provide an overview of their huge potential in the look out of an efficient and safe therapy against this complex disease. Porous inorganic nanoparticles have been designed to be accumulated in tumoral tissues; once there to recognize the target cell and finally, to release their payload in a controlled manner.
Neuroblastoma cells can acquire resistance mechanisms that make them invulnerable to chemotherapeutic agents. The use of nanoparticles as drug carriers provides the possibility to deliver several drugs simultaneously to specific tumoral cell populations, improving their therapeutic outcome. Herein, the development of a multifunctional nanoplatform based on the assembly of protocells (PC) and polymeric nanocapsules (PNC) is reported. PC provides the ability to transport and release cytotoxic drugs while PNC offers the capacity to transport enzymes to the tumoral tissues preserving their catalytic activity. Doxorubicin (Dox) and Glucose Oxidase (Gox) are housed within PC and PNC, respectively. The external surface of these nanoassemblies is decorated with synthetic targeting moieties, providing selectivity to neuroblastoma cells. Thus, the nanoplatform is endowed with the ability to generate multiple insults within neuroblastoma cells as cytotoxic drug release, glucose starvation, and oxidative damage. This nanoplatform exhibits significantly higher cytotoxic activity in comparison with only drug‐loaded protocells or empty protocells decorated with glucose oxidase nanocapsules, which points out the existence of a potent synergic effect between the action of both therapeutic agents: Dox and Gox. This strategy can be adapted to the production of multifunctional nanoassemblies, improving the arsenal against different types of tumors.
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