Inflammation-targeted nanomedicine against brain cancer: From design strategies to future developments

Brain cancer is an aggressive type of cancer with poor prognosis. While the immune system protects against cancer in the early stages, the tumor exploits the healing arm of inflammatory reactions to accelerate its growth and spread. Various immune cells penetrate the developing tumor region, establishing a pro-inflammatory tumor milieu. Additionally, tumor cells may release chemokines and cytokines to attract immune cells and promote cancer growth. Inflammation and its associated mechanisms in the progression of cancer have been extensively studied in the majority of solid tumors, especially brain tumors. However, treatment of the malignant brain cancer is hindered by several obstacles, such as the blood-brain barrier, transportation inside the brain interstitium, inflammatory mediators that promote tumor growth and invasiveness, complications in administering therapies to tumor cells specifically, the highly invasive nature of gliomas, and the resistance to drugs. To resolve these obstacles, nanomedicine could be a potential strategy that has facilitated advancements in diagnosing and treating brain cancer. Due to the numerous benefits provided by their small size and other features, nanoparticles have been a prominent focus of research in the drug-delivery field. The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of inflammatory mediators and signaling pathways in brain cancer as well as the recent advances in understanding the nano-carrier approaches for enhancing drug delivery to the brain in the treatment of brain cancer.