Understanding Nanoparticle Toxicity to Direct a Safe-by-Design Approach in Cancer Nanomedicine

Abstract

Nanomedicine is a rapidly growing field that uses nanomaterials for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various diseases, including cancer. Various biocompatible nanoplatforms with diversified capabilities for tumor targeting, imaging, and therapy have materialized to yield individualized therapy. However, due to their unique properties brought about by their small size, safety concerns have emerged as their physicochemical properties can lead to altered pharmacokinetics, with the potential to cross biological barriers. In addition, the intrinsic toxicity of some of the inorganic materials (i.e., heavy metals) and their ability to accumulate and persist in the human body has been a challenge to their translation. Successful clinical translation of these nanoparticles is heavily dependent on their stability, circulation time, access and bioavailability to disease sites, and their safety profile. This review covers preclinical and clinical inorganic-nanoparticle based nanomaterial utilized for cancer imaging and therapeutics. A special emphasis is put on the rational design to develop non-toxic/safe inorganic nanoparticle constructs to increase their viability as translatable nanomedicine for cancer therapies.

Nanomaterials Synthesis through Microfluidic Methods: An Updated Overview

“…Nanomaterials are structures that have at least one dimension between 1 and 100 nm [ 17 , 18 ]. Such materials have revolutionized many domains, out of which the most intensively researched are related to modern medicine, especially regarding biosensors, diagnostics, targeted drug delivery, and therapeutics [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Having such a broad spectrum of applications, nanomaterials should be synthesized as efficiently as possible in order to gain extensive market reach.…”

Recent Advances in Nanomedicine for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis

“…Most of the nanoparticle-based treatments are still in preclinical phase, indicating challenges in translating the technology from bench to bedside. The assessment of the inherent risks of nanoparticles, such as toxicity, long-term exposure and clearance, routes of administration, as well as interaction with other biological molecules and their long-term effects, are needed for clinical translation [ 228 ]. In line with this, FDA has established the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL) in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Cancer Institute which provides infrastructure to accelerate the preclinical testing of nanoparticle efficacy and toxicity to advance basic science research into the clinic.…”

Progress of Cancer Nanotechnology as Diagnostics, Therapeutics, and Theranostics Nanomedicine: Preclinical Promise and Translational Challenges

“…Influence of the physicochemical properties (for example—size, shape, solubility, surface charge, chemical structure and reactivity, and surface modification) of inorganic NPs have extensive studies and are well-known [ 145 , 146 ]. A common safety issue with this category of nanomedicines has been known to induce DNA damage and oxidative damage [ 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 ]. We are discussing here the biological safety issues with commonly used (and considered as promising) inorganic NPs.…”