Smart Nanotherapeutics and Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is a significant health problem worldwide. Unfortunately, current therapeutic strategies lack a sufficient level of specificity and can harm adjacent healthy cells. Consequently, to address the clinical need, novel approaches to improve treatment efficiency with minimal side effects are required. Nanotechnology can substantially contribute to the generation of differentiated products and improve patient outcomes. Evidence from previous research suggests that nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems could provide a promising platform for the targeted delivery of traditional chemotherapeutic drugs and novel small molecule therapeutic agents to treat lung cancer cells more effectively. This has also been found to improve the therapeutic index and reduce the required drug dose. Nanodrug delivery systems also provide precise control over drug release, resulting in reduced toxic side effects, controlled biodistribution, and accelerated effects or responses. This review highlights the most advanced and novel nanotechnology-based strategies, including targeted nanodrug delivery systems, stimuli-responsive nanoparticles, and bio-nanocarriers, which have recently been employed in preclinical and clinical investigations to overcome the current challenges in lung cancer treatments.

Nanocarriers: A novel strategy for the delivery of CRISPR/Cas systems

“…Biomacromolecular therapeutic agents, including DNAs and RNAs, are often degraded in biological fluids ( Doroudian et al, 2021b ; Azhdari et al, 2022 ). Moreover, they are ineffective at crossing the cell‐membrane barrier due to their hydrophilicity and negative charge ( Hanjani et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Nano delivery systems present a promising strategy for overcoming current challenges with CRISPR/Cas9 delivery. In this context, nanoparticles are used as carriers for the direct delivery of therapeutic components to the nuclei of targeted cells ( Wang et al, 2017 ; Doroudian et al, 2021b ). Nano delivery systems improve gene delivery by covering the negative charge of DNA, therefore preventing the cargo from intracellular nuclease degradation ( Li et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Protecting cargo against degradation by digestive elements is of significant importance for nucleic structures as they are highly exposed to the nucleases once entering the body. Therefore, nano-based delivery systems provide a solution to a number of key challenges in the context of therapeutic delivery ( Doroudian et al, 2021b ).…”

ROS-responsive polymer nanoparticles with enhanced loading of dexamethasone effectively modulate the lung injury microenvironment

“…A range of ROS-responsive materials, such as scaffolds, hydrogels, and nanoparticles (NPs), have recently been settled to respond to physiological oxidative microenvironments [ 16 , 17 ]. To specifically target inflamed lung tissues, ROS-responsive NPs have been developed to deliver therapeutic drugs that modulate the ALI microenvironment [ 5 , 18 , 19 ]. For example, a ROS-responsive material 4-(hydroxymethyl phenylboronic acid pinacol ester)-modified cyclodextrin was employed as a carrier to encapsulate moxifloxacin to create a core-shell NPs, whose surface was further coated with 2-distearoyl-sn-glycer-3-pho-sphoethanolamine-polyethylene glycol folic acid [20] .…”

Molecular Insight into the Therapeutic Effects of Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes in Respiratory Diseases and the Potential for Pulmonary Delivery

“…It was estimated that cumulatively, respiratory diseases were the third largest cause of death and were responsible for approximately 4 million deaths worldwide in 2019 [ 1 ]. Novel approaches, such as nanomedicine and regenerative medicine, could be beneficial in the diagnosis or treatment of various lung disorders [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Despite advances in modern medicine and drug design techniques, no drug has been developed to cure major respiratory diseases.…”