Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems for treatment of oral cancer: a review

Abstract

Oral cancer (oral cavity and oropharynx) is a common and aggressive cancer that invades local tissue, can cause metastasis, and has a high mortality rate. Conventional treatment strategies, such as surgery and chemoradiotherapy, have improved over the past few decades; however, they remain far from optimal. Currently, cancer research is focused on improving cancer diagnosis and treatment methods (oral cavity and oropharynx) nanotechnology, which involves the design, characterization, production, and application of nanoscale drug delivery systems. In medicine, nanotechnologies, such as polymeric nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, gold nanoparticles, hydrogels, cyclodextrin complexes, and liquid crystals, are promising tools for diagnostic probes and therapeutic devices. The objective of this study is to present a systematic review of nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems for oral cancers.

Development and characterization of p1025-loaded bioadhesive liquid-crystalline system for the prevention of <em>Streptococcus mutans </em>biofilms

“…24 Among all drug-delivery nanosystems, the liquid-crystalline system (LCS) has received considerable attention, because of its excellent potential to control the release of a wide range of biomolecules, including peptides. [25][26][27] The LCS also stands out because it is formed by surfactants that form lamellar, hexagonal, and cubic crystalline liquid mesophases, by the gradual addition of solvents, such as water. The lamellar mesophase is a one-dimensional structure formed by parallel and planar layers of surfactant bilayers separated by layers of solvent.…”

“…From these data, the formulations F1C, F2C, and F3C were selected for physicochemical characterization. 26 structural features of the formulations…”

Potential applications of nanoparticles in cancer immunotherapy

“…72 Although small NPs (< 500 nm) can be efficiently internalized by local DCs, active targeting of designed NPs through molecular recognition, i.e., ligand-receptor interaction or antibody-antigen recognition, has been shown to be efficient in codelivering Ags and other stimulatory molecules to specific DC population. 73,74 Particulate delivery systems including virus vectors, whole-cell vaccines, virosomes, immunostimulating complexes (ISCOMs), virus-like particles (VLPs) and other biodegradable nanocarriers can carry specific ligands and thereby increase interaction with target cells as compared to soluble antigens. For example, Cruz et al investigated three distinct cell-surface receptors expressed on DCs as targets for pegylated poly(lactic-coglycolic acid) (PLGA) NPs: i) CD40, a TNF-a family receptor with known DC activating properties after binding to its specific ligand; ii) DEC-205, a C-type lectin receptor, and iii) CD11c, integrin receptor.…”

Nano drug delivery in oral cancer therapy: An emerging avenue to unveil

“…As per the documented literature, there are more in vitro and animal studies with very few clinical studies elucidating the therapeutic effects of nanoparticles in oral cancer. [35] The usage of nanostructures like quantum dots (QDs) (nanoparticles with quantum confinement properties, like size-tunable light emission) along with magnetic resonance imaging, can be widely applied in diagnosis and imaging of the tumor. Later, QDs-photosenstizers complexes as Photodynamic therapeutic agents was put forward by Samia et al which can mediate the targeted cellular destruction.…”