Title:Engineered Nanoparticles Against MDR in Cancer: The State of the Art and its Prospective
VOLUME: 22 ISSUE: 28
Author(s):Javed Ahmad, Sohail Akhter, Mohammad Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Wahajuddin, Nigel H. Greig, Mohammad Amjad Kamal, Patrick Midoux and Chantal Pichon
Affiliation:Senior Fellow of LE STUDIUM ® Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies, Centre-Val de Loire Region, Nucleic Acids Transfer by Non-Viral Methods, Centre de BiophysiqueMoléculaire, CNRS UPR4301, Orléans, France.
Keywords:Multidrug resistance, MDR, efflux transporter, nanoparticles, passive targeting, active targeting, pH-sensitive, HIFU,
combinational drug targeting.
Abstract:Cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease at intra/inter patient levels and known as
the leading cause of death worldwide. A variety of mono and combinational therapies including
chemotherapy have been evolved over the years for its effective treatment. However,
advent of chemotherapeutic resistance or multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer is a major
challenge researchers are facing in cancer chemotherapy. MDR is a complex process having
multifaceted non-cellular or cellular-based mechanisms. Research in the area of cancer
nanotechnology over the past two decade has now proven that the smartly designed nanoparticles
help in successful chemotherapy by overcoming the MDR and preferentially accumulate
in the tumor region by means of active and passive targeting therefore reducing the offtarget
accumulation of payload. Many of such nanoparticles are in different stages of clinical
trials as nanomedicines showing promising result in cancer therapy including the resistant
cases. Nanoparticles as chemotherapeutics carriers offer the opportunity to have multiple
payload of drug and or imaging agents for combinational and theranostics therapy. Moreover, nanotechnology
further bring in notice the new treatment strategies such as combining the NIR, MRI and HIFU in cancer chemotherapy
and imaging. Here, we discussed the cellular/non-cellular factors constituting the MDR in cancer and the
role of nanomedicines in effective chemotherapy of MDR cases of cancers. Moreover, recent advancements like
combinational payload delivery and combined physical approach with nanotechnology in cancer therapy have
also been discussed.
