Nanotechnology advances in upper gastrointestinal, liver and pancreatic cancer

Recent status and trends of nanotechnology in cervical cancer: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis

Background

Cervical cancer is currently the second leading cause of cancer death among women from developing countries (1). However, there is a lack of effective treatment methods, and the existing treatments often result in significant adverse reactions and high chances of recurrence, which ultimately impact the prognosis of patients. As a result, the application of nanotechnology, specifically nanoparticle-based approaches, in the diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer has gained significant attention. This study aims to examine the current research status and future development trends of nanotechnology in relation to cervical cancer using a bibliometric perspective.

Methods

A bibliometric analysis was performed to gather relevant research papers from the Web of Science database. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were utilized to conduct quantitative analysis and identify hot topics in the field, focusing on countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords.

Result

A total of 997 eligible literature were retrieved. From January 1, 2014 to September 20, 2023, the overall number of publications showed an upward trend. The paper mainly comes from China (n=414). The main institution is the Chinese Academy of Sciences (n=62), and 60% of the top 10 institutions in the number of documents issued are from China. First authors Ma, Rong (n=12) and Alifu, Nuernisha (n=12). The journal with the highest publication volume is ACS Applied Materials&INTERFACES (n=35), and the journal with the highest citation frequency is BIOMATERIALS (n=508). "Nanoparticles (n=295)", "cervical cancer (n=248)", and "drug delivery (n=218)" are the top three most frequently occurring keywords. In recent years, photothermal therapy and indocyanine green have become research hotspots.

Conclusion

The application of nanotechnology in the field of cervical cancer has garnered considerable attention. Nanoparticles-based methods for diagnosis, administration, and treatment have proven to be instrumental in enhancing the sensitivity of cervical cancer detection, improving the accuracy and efficiency of administration, and reducing drug toxicity. Enhancing treatment efficacy and improving patient prognosis have emerged as current research priorities and future directions.

Nanotechnology in diagnosis and therapy of gastrointestinal cancer

Advances in nanotechnology have opened new frontiers in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Nanoparticle-based technology improves the precision of tumor diagnosis when combined with imaging, as well as the accuracy of drug target delivery, with fewer side effects. Optimized nanosystems have demonstrated advantages in many fields, including enhanced specificity of detection, reduced toxicity of drugs, enhanced effect of contrast agents, and advanced diagnosis and therapy of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. In this review, we summarize the current nanotechnologies in diagnosis and treatment of GI cancers. The development of nanotechnology will lead to personalized approaches for early diagnosis and treatment of GI cancers.

Probing the relevance of 3D cancer models in nanomedicine research

For decades, 2D cell culture format on plastic has been the main workhorse in cancer research. Though many important understandings of cancer cell biology were derived using this platform, it is not a fair representation of the in vivo scenario. In this review, both established and new 3D cell culture systems are discussed with specific references to anti-cancer drug and nanomedicine applications. 3D culture systems exploit more realistic spatial, biochemical and cellular heterogeneity parameters to bridge the experimental gap between in vivo and in vitro settings when studying the performance and efficacy of novel nanomedicine strategies to manage cancer. However, the complexities associated with 3D culture systems also necessitate greater technical expertise in handling and characterizing in order to arrive at meaningful experimental conclusions. Finally, we have also provided future perspectives where cutting edge 3D culture technologies may be combined with under-explored technologies to build better in vitro cancer platforms.

Active radar guides missile to its target: receptor-based targeted treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma by nanoparticulate systems

Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) usually present at advanced stages and do not benefit from surgical resection, so drug therapy should deserve a prominent place in unresectable HCC treatment. But chemotherapy agents, such as doxorubicin, cisplatin, and paclitaxel, frequently encounter important problems such as low specificity and non-selective biodistribution. Recently, the development of nanotechnology led to significant breakthroughs to overcome these problems. Decorating the surfaces of nanoparticulate-based drug carriers with homing devices has demonstrated its potential in concentrating chemotherapy agents specifically to HCC cells. In this paper, we reviewed the current status of active targeting strategies for nanoparticulate systems based on various receptors such as asialoglycoprotein receptor, transferrin receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, folate receptor, integrin, and CD44, which are abundantly expressed on the surfaces of hepatocytes or liver cancer cells. Furthermore, we pointed out their merits and defects and provided theoretical references for further research.