Drug delivery and release systems for targeted tumor therapy

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Pharmacology
• Bioconjugation Chemistry

Background:

• Chemotherapy faces limitations due to toxicity to healthy cells.
• Targeted drug delivery aims to improve cancer treatment efficacy and reduce side effects.
• Peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) are emerging as promising targeted therapeutic agents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the development of efficient peptide-drug conjugates for cancer therapy.
• To highlight critical factors for designing effective PDCs.
• To evaluate recent advancements and future prospects of PDCs in oncology.

Main Methods:

• Review of literature on peptide-drug conjugates.
• Analysis of tumor-targeting peptides and their properties.
• Discussion of cleavable linker strategies for PDCs.
• Evaluation of synthetic considerations for PDC development.

Main Results:

• PDCs can selectively deliver cytotoxic agents (toxophores) to cancer cells via targeted receptors.
• The choice of tumor-targeting peptides and cleavable linkers is crucial for PDC efficacy.
• Various linker designs and synthetic approaches are available for constructing PDCs.

Conclusions:

• Peptide-drug conjugates represent a significant advancement in targeted cancer therapy.
• Optimizing peptide selection and linker chemistry is essential for successful PDC development.
• PDCs hold considerable promise for future cancer treatment strategies.