Engineering Nanomedicines for Improved Melanoma Therapy: Progress and Promises

Abstract

Once metastatic, melanoma remains one of the most aggressive and morbid malignancies. Moreover, in past decades, the overall survival for advanced unresectable melanoma exhibited a constancy of poor prognosis. Low response rates and serious adverse effects have been characteristic of standard therapy based on a combination of chemotherapeutic agents or immunotherapy with IL-2. For example, the chemotherapy including dacarbazine, carmustin, cisplatin and tamoxifen is known as ‘Dartmouth regimen’ while the CVD regimen comprises carmustine, vinblastine and dacarbazine. Thus, there is an urgent and critical need to reformulate these bioactive agents using nanoscience and nanotechnology as alternative strategies. This article overviews current design and evaluation of nanomedicine undertaken to address this unmet medical need. The nanomedicines studied include polymeric nanoparticles, liposomes, polymersomes, dendrimers, cubosomes, niosomes and nanodiamonds. In this preclinical article, nanotechnology provides hope for effective treatment of this aggressive and largely treatment-resistant disease.

Applications of nanotechnology for melanoma treatment, diagnosis, and theranostics

“…It is known that the combination of chemotherapy with immunotherapy or targeted therapy produces much more effective treatment outcomes. 16 Third, nanoparticles can protect drugs made of fragile small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) or proteins, from biochemical degradation in the human body. This is due to the stealth-like features of nanoparticles.…”

“…24 Many nanoparticles have been studied for the treatment of melanoma, including liposomes, dendrimers, polymersomes, carbon-based nanoparticles, inorganic nanoparticles, and protein-based nanoparticles (Table 1). 16,25,26 A liposome is a sphere consisting of a lipid bilayer that contains aqueous core for hydrophilic drugs. 24 Hydrophobic drugs can be contained between the two layers.…”

“…16 Applications of nanotechnology in the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma have been studied extensively and have advanced the study of melanoma in several aspects. 17,18 Nanoparticles provide an effective drug delivery system, allowing anticancer drugs to reach the cancer site specifically and thus greatly improving treatment efficacy.…”

Evaluation of β-cyclodextrin-modified gemini surfactant-based delivery systems in melanoma models

“…7,8 Hence, nanotechnology, such as polymer-based nanoparticles, dendrimers, liposomes, niosomes, cubosomes, and nanodiamonds, can contribute significant improvements to the efficiency of cancer therapy. 9 Melanoma is a type of cancer that needs urgent attention and could benefit from nanotherapy. Malignant melanoma, in the USA, is the sixth most common cancer in males and the seventh in females, making this cancer one of the most lethal solid tumors.…”

Novel therapeutic mechanisms determine the effectiveness of lipid-core nanocapsules on melanoma models

“…8,9 Different drug-delivering systems such as liposomes, [10][11][12][13] dendrimers, 14,15 polymersomes, 16,17 and carbon-based nanoparticles 18,19 have been tested, but until now, only liposomes and albumin nanoparticles containing anticancer drugs have been used clinically. [20][21][22] Polymeric nanocarriers such as multifunctional lipidcoated nanoparticles 23 and polymeric nanocapsules 24 have encouraging therapeutic applications of nanodrug delivery systems, especially as carriers for anticancer drugs into solid tumors.…”