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Gather wisdom to overcome barriers: Well-designed nano-drug delivery systems for treating gliomas
Jiwei Cui1,2, Yuanxin Xu1,2, Haiyan Tu1,2
1College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, China.
Abstract:
Due to the special physiological and pathological characteristics of gliomas, most therapeutic drugs are prevented from entering the brain. To improve the poor prognosis of existing therapies, researchers have been continuously developing non-invasive methods to overcome barriers to gliomas therapy. Although these strategies can be used clinically to overcome the blood‒brain barrier (BBB), the accurate delivery of drugs to the glioma lesions cannot be ensured. Nano-drug delivery systems (NDDS) have been widely used for precise drug delivery. In recent years, researchers have gathered their wisdom to overcome barriers, so many well-designed NDDS have performed prominently in preclinical studies. These meticulous designs mainly include cascade passing through BBB and targeting to glioma lesions, drug release in response to the glioma microenvironment, biomimetic delivery systems based on endogenous cells/extracellular vesicles/protein, and carriers created according to the active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicines. We reviewed these well-designed NDDS in detail. Furthermore, we discussed the current ongoing and completed clinical trials of NDDS for gliomas therapy, and analyzed the challenges and trends faced by clinical translation of these well-designed NDDS.
Insights
Nano-drug delivery systems (NDDS) offer promising solutions for glioma therapy by overcoming the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and targeting tumors. This review details NDDS designs and analyzes their clinical translation challenges and trends.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Neuro-oncology
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Gliomas present unique physiological and pathological challenges, hindering therapeutic drug penetration into the brain.
- Existing glioma therapies often have poor prognoses due to difficulties in drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB).
- Non-invasive strategies are crucial for improving glioma treatment efficacy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review well-designed nano-drug delivery systems (NDDS) for overcoming BBB and targeting glioma lesions.
- To discuss current clinical trials involving NDDS for glioma therapy.
- To analyze the challenges and future trends in the clinical translation of NDDS for gliomas.
Main Methods:
- Review of preclinical studies on NDDS designed for glioma therapy.
- Analysis of NDDS strategies including cascade BBB crossing, glioma microenvironment-responsive release, biomimetic systems, and traditional Chinese medicine-based carriers.
- Examination of ongoing and completed clinical trials for NDDS in glioma treatment.
Main Results:
- Numerous NDDS have shown significant promise in preclinical studies for precise drug delivery to gliomas.
- Key NDDS designs focus on enhanced BBB penetration, targeted glioma accumulation, and controlled drug release.
- Clinical translation of NDDS for glioma therapy faces challenges, with ongoing trials indicating evolving trends.
Conclusions:
- NDDS represent a significant advancement in overcoming delivery barriers for effective glioma treatment.
- Continued research and development are essential to address the challenges in translating NDDS from preclinical success to clinical application.
- Future trends point towards more sophisticated biomimetic and responsive NDDS for improved glioma therapy outcomes.
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