Issue 9, 2019

Transforming stealthy to sticky nanocarriers: a potential application for tumor therapy

Abstract

Nanomedicine has shown remarkable progress in preclinical studies of tumor treatment. Over the past decade, scientists have developed various nanocarriers (NCs) for delivering drugs into the tumor area. However, the average amount of accumulated drugs in tumor sites is far from satisfactory. This limitation is strongly related to the corona formation during blood circulation. To overcome this issue, NCs should be designed to become highly stealthy by modifying their surface charge. However, at the same time, stealthy effects not only prevent protein formation but also alleviate the cellular uptake of NCs. Therefore, it is necessary to develop NCs with switchable properties, which are stealthy in the circulation system and sticky when arriving at tumor sites. In this review, we discuss the recent strategies to develop passive and active charge-switchable NCs, known as chameleon-like drug delivery systems, which can reversibly transform their surface from stealthy to sticky and have various designs.

Graphical abstract: Transforming stealthy to sticky nanocarriers: a potential application for tumor therapy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
09 May 2019
Accepted
20 Jun 2019
First published
20 Jun 2019

Biomater. Sci., 2019,7, 3581-3593

Transforming stealthy to sticky nanocarriers: a potential application for tumor therapy

A. Gafur, N. Kristi, A. Maruf, G. Wang and Z. Ye, Biomater. Sci., 2019, 7, 3581 DOI: 10.1039/C9BM00724E

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