Folate receptor targeted drug delivery- from the bench to the bedside

Abstract

Abstract:Targeted drug delivery is a promising strategy for improving tumor therapy. Folate receptor (FR) is an established ovarian cancer marker that is also frequently found to be overexpressed in other major epithelial tumors. Meanwhile, functional FR−β is expressed in myeloid leukemias and in inflammatory macrophages, including tumor-associated macrophages. FR based tumor targeted drug delivery has been a very active area of research and recent advancement of this technology towards clinical translation is highly significant.

Modular Nanotransporters for Nuclear-Targeted Delivery of Auger Electron Emitters

“…In normal tissues and non-activated macrophages, FRs are usually not exposed to agents circulating in the blood, whereas malignant transformation of cells or activation of macrophages make the FRs on these cells both overexpressed and accessible to the molecules dissolved in blood. These features of FRs made them a widely exploited target ( Lu and Low, 2012 ; Xie et al, 2016 ; Srinivasarao and Low, 2017 ). The list of diseases with abnormal cells characterized by overexpression and/or accessibility of FRs includes several types of cancer and a group of diseases that are characterized by inflammation, e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, and Crohn’s disease ( Slastnikova et al, 2015 , 2017b ).…”

Highly Sensitive Electrochemical Biosensor Using Folic Acid-Modified Reduced Graphene Oxide for the Detection of Cancer Biomarker

“…This selective expression of FR-α and FR-β ensures their potential as specific biomarkers for the targeted delivery of imaging and therapeutic agents to different types of cancer and other abnormalities in the human body. Antibodies of FR-α and FR-β also act as promising therapeutic candidates for tumour-targeted therapy [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”