NANOTECHNOLOGY-BASED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR TARGETED CANCER THERAPY: MOLECULAR PERSPECT

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most important causes of death in the world and traditional treatments suffer from a lack of specificity, toxicity, multidrug resistance and therapeutic efficacy. The application of nanotechnology to drug delivery has become an attractive alternative that promises to overcome challenges of targeted cancer therapy by enhancing drug delivery, controlled release and selective targeting of tumor. In the current study, the correlation of physico-chemical properties of nanoparticles with their toxicity behaviour was investigated to assess the role of these nanoparticles in targeted cancer drug delivery. Using computational and statistical methods, a publicly available nanoparticle toxicity data set was analysed that included variables on particle size, hydrodynamic size, surface charge, surface area, dosage concentration, and exposure duration. To identify the influence of the characteristics of the nanoparticles on the biological interactions and toxicological outcomes, descriptive analysis, comparative toxicity evaluation and correlation was performed. Results showed that the size, surface charge, dose and exposure time of the nanoparticles had a significant impact on the classification of toxicity and therapeutic potential. The smaller nanoparticles with optimized surface properties had better tumor penetration and cellular uptake parameters while higher dosage levels and longer exposure times had higher toxicological effects. Nanoparticles with positive charges showed better interactions at the cellular level and toxicity potential because of higher affinity with the cell membranes. Overall, these results indicated that precision engineering of nanoparticles and molecularly targeted delivery systems hold great promise to improve precision oncology and to develop safer, more effective cancer therapeutics.