Insights into Aptamer-Drug Delivery Systems against Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is a common cancer in elderly males. Significant progress has been made in the drug therapies for prostate cancer in recent years. However, side effects are still problems that have not been overcome by the currently used anti-prostate cancer drugs. Novel technologies can be applied to reduce or even eliminate the side effects of drugs. An aptamer may be a sequence of nucleic acids or peptides that can specifically recognize proteins or cells. Taking advantage of this feature, scientists have designed aptamer-drug delivery systems for the development of anti-prostate cancer agents. Theoretically, these aptamer-drug delivery systems can specifically recognize prostate cancer cells and then induce cell death without attacking normal cells. We collected the relevant literature in this field and found that at least nine compounds have been prepared as aptamer-drug delivery systems to evaluate their precise anti-prostate cancer effects. However, the currently studied aptamer-drug delivery systems have not yet entered the market due to defects. Here, we analyze the published data, summarize the characteristics of these delivery systems, and propose ways to promote their application, thus promoting the development of the aptamer-drug delivery systems against prostate cancer.

Recent advances in aptamer-armed multimodal theranostic nanosystems for imaging and targeted therapy of cancer

The side effects of chemotherapeutics during the course of cancer treatment limit their clinical outcomes. The most important mission of the modern cancer therapy modalities is the delivery of anticancer drugs specifically to the target cells/tissue in order to avoid/reduce any inadvertent non-specific impacts on the healthy normal cells. Nanocarriers decorated with a designated targeting ligand such as aptamers (Aps) and antibodies (Abs) are able to deliver cargo molecules to the target cells/tissue without affecting other neighboring cells, resulting in an improved treatment of cancer. For targeted therapy of cancer, different ligands (e.g., protein, peptide, Abs, Aps and small molecules) have widely been used in the development of different targeting drug delivery systems (DDSs). Of these homing agents, nucleic acid Aps show unique targeting potential with high binding affinity to a variety of biological targets (e.g., genes, peptides, proteins, and even cells and organs). Aps have widely been used as the targeting agent, in large part due to their unique 3D structure, simplicity in synthesis and functionalization, high chemical flexibility, low immunogenicity and toxicity, and cell/tissue penetration capability in some cases. Here, in this review, we provide important insights on Ap-decorated multimodal nanosystems (NSs) and discuss their applications in targeted therapy and imaging of cancer.