Novel naproxen-peptide-conjugated amphiphilic dendrimer self-assembly micelles for targeting drug delivery to osteosarcoma cells

Research Status of Dendrimer Micelles in Tumor Therapy for Drug Delivery

Dendrimers are a family of polymers with highly branched structure, well-defined composition, and extensive functional groups, which have attracted great attention in biomedical applications. Micelles formed by dendrimers are ideal nanocarriers for delivering anticancer agents due to the explicit study of their characteristics of particle size, charge, and biological properties such as toxicity, blood circulation time, biodistribution, and cellular internalization. Here, the classification, preparation, and structure of dendrimer micelles are reviewed, and the specific functional groups modified on the surface of dendrimers for tumor active targeting, stimuli-responsive drug release, reduced toxicity, and prolonged blood circulation time are discussed. In addition, their applications are summarized as various platforms for biomedical applications related to cancer therapy including drug delivery, gene transfection, nano-contrast for imaging, and combined therapy. Other applications such as tissue engineering and biosensor are also involved. Finally, the possible challenges and perspectives of dendrimer micelles for their further applications are discussed.

Multifunctional nanoparticles for the treatment and diagnosis of osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a common primary malignant bone tumor in adolescents. Currently, the commonly used treatment strategies for OS include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, these methods have some problems that cannot be ignored, such as postoperative sequelae and severe side effects. Therefore, in recent years, researchers have been looking for other means to improve the treatment or diagnosis effect of OS and increase the overall survival rate of patients. With the development of nanotechnology, nanoparticles (NPs) have presented excellent properties in improving the therapeutic efficacy of drugs for OS. Nanotechnology makes it possible for NPs to combine various functional molecules and drugs to achieve multiple therapeutic effects. This review presents the important properties of multifunctional NPs for the treatment and diagnosis of OS and focuses on the research progress of common NPs applied for drug or gene delivery, phototherapy and diagnosis of OS, such as carbon-based quantum dots, metal, chitosan and liposome NPs. Finally, the promising prospects and challenges of developing multifunctional NPs with enhanced efficacy are discussed, which lays the foundation and direction for improving the future therapeutic and diagnostic methods of OS.

Self-assembly of Peptide dendrimers and their bio-applications in theranostics

Nanotechnology has brought revolutionized advances in disease diagnosis and therapy. Self-assembled peptide dendrimers own novel physicochemical properties through the synergistic effects of the polypeptide chain, dendrimer and nano-structure, exhibiting great potential in theranostic. This review provides comprehensive insights into various peptide dendrimers for self-assembly. Their nanosize, morphology and composition are presented to understand self-assembly behaviors precisely. We further introduce the emerging theranostic applications based on specific imaging and efficient delivery recently.

Fabrication of Curcumin-Modified TiO2 Nanoarrays via Cyclodextrin Based Polymer Functional Coatings for Osteosarcoma Therapy

The incomplete removal of bone tumors leads to increased local recurrence and poor prognosis. To prevent ostoperative tumor recurrence and simultaneously repair surgery-caused bone defects, there is a need of great significance to develop implantable biomaterials possessing both cancer cell-killing ability and excellent bioactivity. In this work, a functionalized titanium-based implant is successfully fabricated by loading curcumin (CUR) onto cyclodextrin based polymer (pCD) modified titanium dioxide (TiO₂ ) nanorod arrays. Herein, a polydopamine (pDA) assisted film is implemented as a first coating layer onto the surface of the TiO₂ nanoarrays to guarantee the robust anchorage of the pCD. The pCD coating acts as a reservoir for CUR, allowing for efficient drug loading and sustained release of anticancer drugs. Studies show that the CUR-modified surfaces (TiO₂ /pDA/pCD/CUR) can significantly promote apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells in vitro by inducing mitochondrial dysfunction caused by the ROS overproduction, and meanwhile, effectively inhibit the tumor growth in vivo. Moreover, such functionalized implants with surface density of loaded CUR at 22.48 µg cm^-2 or lower support the attachment and proliferation of osteoblasts in vitro. These results successfully demonstrate that as-prepared TiO₂ /pDA/pCD/CUR constructs have combined anticancer performance and good biocompatibility, which has great promise for the surgical therapy of bone tumors.

Peptide dendrimers as valuable biomaterials in medical sciences

Peptides are oligomers of amino acids, which have been used in a wide range of applications, particularly in medical and pharmaceutical sciences. Linear peptides have been extensively developed in various fields of medicine as therapeutics or targeting agents. The branched structure of peptide dendrimers with peptide (commonly, poly l‑Lysine) or non-peptide (commonly poly‑amidoamine) core, often exhibits valuable novel features, improves stability and enhances the functionality of peptide in comparison with small linear peptides. The potential applications of Branched and hyper-branched peptidic structures which are known as peptide dendrimers in biomedical sciences have been approved vastly. A peptide dendrimer contains three distinct parts including core, building blocks and branching units or surface functional groups. These structures provide a lot of opportunities in the pharmaceutical field, particularly for novel drug development. In this review, a brief summary of different biomedical applications of peptide dendrimers is presented, and peptide dendrimers as active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug delivery carriers are discussed. Applications of peptide dendrimers in vaccines and diagnostic tools are also presented, in brief. Generally, peptide dendrimers are promising biomaterials with high evolution rate for clinical and non-clinical applications in medicine.

Peptide dendrimers: drug/gene delivery and other approaches

Dendrimers are versatile hyperbranched molecules, which have deserved attention especially for their potential in many applications, including biological. Peptide dendrimers comprise interesting classes of dendrimers, and their use has been emphasized as a drug/bioactive compound delivery system, mostly in the antineoplastic area. The bioactive molecules can be covalently linked or entrapped inside the peptide derivative. Self-assembled nanocarriers are a recent trend in the design of potential delivery systems, and pH-sensitive carriers, one of their methods, have been designed to control their systems. In addition, the use of targeting peptides or other specific groups that direct the drug/bioactive compounds to specific organs is an important trend in the search for better drug delivery systems. Recent examples have been given in the literature, showing that gene delivery as another important peptide dendrimer application. It is worth emphasizing that some peptide dendrimers show activity per se, without bioactive compounds. Immune compounds and vaccines are presented herein, as well as uses of other peptide dendrimers are briefly discussed in this review, which encompasses around 10 years of work.