Magnetic Solid Nanoparticles and Their Counterparts: Recent Advances towards Cancer Theranostics

Abstract

Cancer is currently a leading cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates an increase of 60% in the global cancer incidence in the next two decades. The inefficiency of the currently available therapies has prompted an urgent effort to develop new strategies that enable early diagnosis and improve response to treatment. Nanomedicine formulations can improve the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of conventional therapies and result in optimized cancer treatments. In particular, theranostic formulations aim at addressing the high heterogeneity of tumors and metastases by integrating imaging properties that enable a non-invasive and quantitative assessment of tumor targeting efficiency, drug delivery, and eventually the monitoring of the response to treatment. However, in order to exploit their full potential, the promising results observed in preclinical stages need to achieve clinical translation. Despite the significant number of available functionalization strategies, targeting efficiency is currently one of the major limitations of advanced nanomedicines in the oncology area, highlighting the need for more efficient nanoformulation designs that provide them with selectivity for precise cancer types and tumoral tissue. Under this current need, this review provides an overview of the strategies currently applied in the cancer theranostics field using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), where both nanocarriers have recently entered the clinical trials stage. The integration of these formulations into magnetic solid lipid nanoparticles—with different composition and phenotypic activity—constitutes a new generation of theranostic nanomedicines with great potential for the selective, controlled, and safe delivery of chemotherapy.

Hybrid Magnetic Lipid-Based Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy

“…Among the physical methods, the most usual approaches are: microwave irradiation, sonochemical, ultraviolet radiation, laser ablation, thermal decomposition (thermolytic), photochemical, or radical induced. Meanwhile, the chemical method approaches include: supercritical fluid, coprecipitation, use of inorganic matrix as support, and organic solvents, whereas the biological method includes the use of algae, bacteria, fungi and plants as precursors or reactor sources [ 67 , 68 , 69 ].…”

Approaches for neutrophil imaging: an important step in personalized medicine

“…Further research using NPs loaded with gadolinium (Gd) contrast agents functionalized with ligands specifically targeting overexpressed cancer cell receptors has also achieved encouraging results in animals [ 28 , 29 ]. However, due to their rapid clearance in the blood circulation, limited tumor-targeting capabilities, and off-target effects in the body, NP-based tumor delivery platforms are rarely applied in clinical settings [ 30 ]. To diagnose tumors more accurately, there is an urgent need to develop an NP molecular imaging detection platform that can circulate in the body.…”

Photothermal Therapy with HER2-Targeted Silver Nanoparticles Leading to Cancer Remission

“…Over the past few decades, the rapid development of nanotechnology and protein engineering has led to the creation of new schemes of diagnostics and treatment of socially significant diseases, including cancer [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Nanostructures, possessing unique properties such as fluorescence or high drug encapsulation capacity, are considered to be the most effective platform for the creation of smart methods of personalized diagnostics and cancer therapy [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”