Involvement of Caveolin-1-mediated transcytosis in the intratumoral accumulation of liposomes

Clinical insights into nanomedicine and biosafety: advanced therapeutic approaches for common urological cancers

Urological cancers including those of the prostate, bladder, and kidney, are prevalent and often lethal malignancies besides other less common ones like testicular and penile cancers. Current treatments have major limitations like side effects, recurrence, resistance, high costs, and poor quality of life. Nanotechnology offers promising solutions through enhanced diagnostic accuracy, targeted drug delivery, controlled release, and multimodal imaging. This review reflects clinical challenges and nanomedical advances across major urological cancers. In prostate cancer, nanoparticles improve delineation and radiosensitization in radiation therapy, enable fluorescent guidance in surgery, and enhance chemotherapy penetration in metastatic disease. Nanoparticles also overcome bladder permeability barriers to increase the residence time of intravesical therapy and chemotherapy agents. In renal cancer, nanocarriers potentiate tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immunotherapy while gene vectors and zinc oxide nanoparticles demonstrate antiproliferative effects. Across modalities, urological applications of nanomedicine include polymeric, liposomal, and metal nanoparticles for targeted therapy, prodrug delivery, photodynamic therapy, and thermal ablation. Biosafety assessments reveal favorable profiles but clinical translation remains limited, necessitating further trials. In conclusion, nanotechnology holds significant potential for earlier detection, precise intervention, and tailored treatment of urological malignancies, warranting expanded research to transform patient outcomes.

Colorectal cancer cell exosome and cytoplasmic membrane for homotypic delivery of therapeutic molecules

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common causes of death in the world. The multi-drug resistance, especially in metastatic colorectal cancer, drives the development of new strategies that secure a positive outcome and reduce undesirable side effects. Nanotechnology has made an impact in addressing some pharmacokinetic and safety issues related to administration of free therapeutic agents. However, demands of managing complex biointerfacing require equally complex methods for introducing stimuli-responsive or targeting elements. In order to procure a more efficient solution to the overcoming of biological barriers, the physiological functions of cancer cell plasma and exosomal membranes provided the source of highly functionalized coatings. Biomimetic nanovehicles based on colorectal cancer (CRC) membranes imparted enhanced biological compatibility, immune escape and protection to diverse classes of therapeutic molecules. When loaded with therapeutic load or used as a coating for other therapeutic nanovehicles, they provide highly efficient and selective cell targeting and uptake. This review presents a detailed overview of the recent application of homotypic biomimetic nanovehicles in the management of CRC. We also address some of the current possibilities and challenges associated with the CRC membrane biomimetics.

Transcytosis-enabled active extravasation of tumor nanomedicine

Extravasation is the first step for nanomedicines in circulation to reach targeted solid tumors. Traditional nanomedicines have been designed to extravasate into tumor interstitium through the interendothelial gaps previously assumed rich in tumor blood vessels, i.e., the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. While the EPR effect has been validated in animal xenograft tumor models, accumulating evidence implies that the EPR effect is very limited and highly heterogeneous in human tumors, leading to highly unpredictable and inefficient extravasation and thus limited therapeutic efficacy of nanomedicines, including those approved in clinics. Enabling EPR-independent extravasation is the key to develop new generation of nanomedicine with enhanced efficacy. Transcytosis of tumor endothelial cells can confer nanomedicines to actively extravasate into solid tumors without relying on the EPR effect. Here, we review and prospectthe development of transcytosis-inducing nanomedicines, in hope of providing instructive insights for design of nanomedicines that can undergo selective transcellular transport across tumor endothelial cells, and thus inspiring the development of next-generation nanomedicines for clinical translation.

Nanocarriers Call the Last Shot in the Treatment of Brain Cancers

Our brain is protected by physio-biological barriers. The blood–brain barrier (BBB) main mechanism of protection relates to the abundance of tight junctions (TJs) and efflux pumps. Although BBB is crucial for healthy brain protection against toxins, it also leads to failure in a devastating disease like brain cancer. Recently, nanocarriers have been shown to pass through the BBB and improve patients’ survival rates, thus becoming promising treatment strategies. Among nanocarriers, inorganic nanocarriers, solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, polymers, micelles, and dendrimers have reached clinical trials after delivering promising results in preclinical investigations. The size of these nanocarriers is between 10 and 1000 nm and is modified by surface attachment of proteins, peptides, antibodies, or surfactants. Multiple research groups have reported transcellular entrance as the main mechanism allowing for these nanocarriers to cross BBB. Transport proteins and transcellular lipophilic pathways exist in BBB for small and lipophilic molecules. Nanocarriers cannot enter via the paracellular route, which is limited to water-soluble agents due to the TJs and their small pore size. There are currently several nanocarriers in clinical trials for the treatment of brain cancer. This article reviews challenges as well as fitting attributes of nanocarriers for brain tumor treatment in preclinical and clinical studies.

The role of caveolin-1 in the biofate and efficacy of anti-tumor drugs and their nano-drug delivery systems

As one of the most important components of caveolae, caveolin-1 is involved in caveolae-mediated endocytosis and transcytosis pathways, and also plays a role in regulating the cell membrane cholesterol homeostasis and mediating signal transduction. In recent years, the relationship between the expression level of caveolin-1 in the tumor microenvironment and the prognostic effect of tumor treatment and drug treatment resistance has also been widely explored. In addition, the interplay between caveolin-1 and nano-drugs is bidirectional. Caveolin-1 could determine the intracellular biofate of specific nano-drugs, preventing from lysosomal degradation, and facilitate them penetrate into deeper site of tumors by transcytosis; while some nanocarriers could also affect caveolin-1 levels in tumor cells, thereby changing certain biophysical function of cells. This article reviews the role of caveolin-1 in tumor prognosis, chemotherapeutic drug resistance, antibody drug sensitivity, and nano-drug delivery, providing a reference for the further application of caveolin-1 in nano-drug delivery systems.

Cyclodextrin nanosponge for the GSH-mediated delivery of Resveratrol in human cancer cells

Smart drug delivery systems are required for the site-specific drug targeting to enhance the therapeutic efficiency of a drug. Resveratrol (RV) is a polyphenolic compound with anti-cancer activity. However, its poor aqueous solubility and non-selectivity are the major challenges for its employment in cancer therapy. In this work, we present the synthesis of RV-loaded glutathione responsive cyclodextrin nanosponges (RV-GSH-NSs) to improve the therapeutic efficiency and selective delivery of RV. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 16.12% and 80.64%, respectively. The in vitro release profile confirmed that RV release was enhanced in response to external glutathione (GSH). Nude NSs were not toxic per se to human fibroblasts when administered for up to 72 h at the highest dose. Cell internalization studies confirmed that RV-GSH-NSs were preferentially up-taken by tumor cells compared to non-tumorigenic cells. Accordingly, RV showed selective toxicity to cancer cells compared to normal cells. GSH depletion by buthionine sulfoximine, a potent inhibitor of its synthesis, reflected in a significant decrease of the NSs accumulation, and consequently resulted in a drastic reduction of RV-mediated toxic effects in cancer cells. These findings demonstrate that GSH- responsive NSs represent an effective delivery system for targeting cancer cells by harnessing the differential tumor characteristics in terms of redox status in parallel with the limitation of side effects toward normal cells.

Chemo-physical Strategies to Advance the in Vivo Functionality of Targeted Nanomedicine: The Next Generation

The past few decades have witnessed an evolution of nanomedicine from biologically inert entities to more smart systems, aimed at advancing in vivo functionality. However, we should recognize that most systems still rely on reasonable explanation-including some over-explanation-rather than definitive evidence, which is a watershed radically determining the speed and extent of advancing nanomedicine. Probing nano-bio interactions and desirable functionality at the tissue, cellular, and molecular levels is most frequently overlooked. Progress toward answering these questions will provide instructive insight guiding more effective chemo-physical strategies. Thus, in the next generation, we argue that much effort should be made to provide definitive evidence for proof-of-mechanism, in lieu of creating many new and complicated systems for similar proof-of-concept.

Cisplatin-loaded albumin nanoparticle and study their internalization effect by using β-cyclodextrin

The present study with aim at enhancing the therapeutic and anti-cancer properties of cisplatin (CPT)-loaded bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanoparticles. The BSA nanoparticles containing CPT (CPT-BSANPs) were successfully prepared by the desolvation technique. The physicochemical characterization of the CPT-BSANPs were used by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The particle size of CPT-BSANPs was found less than 200 nm with 75.02 ± 0.15% entrapment efficiency (EE), while zeta potential and PDI were -17.6 mV and 0.2, respectively. In vitro release behavior of the CPT from the carrier suggests that about 64% of the drug gets released after 48 hrs. The anti-cancer activities of the CPT-BSANPs were tested on MCF-7 cell lines. Our studies show that CPT-BSANPs nanoparticles showed specific targeting and enhanced cytotoxicity to MCF-7 cells when compared to the bare CPT. Thus results suggest that CPT-BSANPs fallowed caveolae-mediated endocytosis, it may become better option for intracellular delivery of anticancer drug.