Primjena nanoterapeutika u liječenju tumora

Nanopharmaceuticals ( 1 -100 nm) represent an opportunity of improving the cancer treatment. Due to its unique characteristics, nanopharmaceuticals have many advantages over conventional chemotherapy. The most important advantage is the potential of targeted delivery of drugs to the tumor tissue resulting in lower systemic toxicity which is the most prominent disadvantage of conventional chemocherapy. Nanoparticles can passively reach the tumor tissue through the leaky vasculature surrounding the tumor due to the increased permeability and retention effect. ln active targeting, targeting ligands are attached at the surface of the nanocarrier for binding to appropriate receptors overexpressed by the tumor cells or tumor vasculature and not expressed by the normal cells. Stimuli-sensitive nanocarriers respond to physical, chemical, or biological stimuli chat promote the release of the drug. Multifunctional nanocarriers have several useful properties. Theranoscics are an emerging subset of multifunctional nanocarriers which provide both the diagnosis and treatment with the same nanoformulation. Various types of nanopharmaceuticals have been used in clinical cancer treatment, including drug conjugates, lipid or polymerbased nanocarriers and inorganic nanoparticles. At the present, the most successful nanomedicine therapeutics in clinical cancer care are drug conjugates. Most clinically available nanocarrier-based cancer therapeutics are passively targeted first-generation nanomedicine drugs. In order to reach the target site, nanoparticles have to avoid degradation by the mononuclear phagocyte system and renal filtration, extravasate into tumor compartment, travel through the tumor stroma against high interstitial fluid pressure gradients, and then interact with target cells or release the drug payload for pharmacological effect. Therefore, for optimal delivery it is necessary to optimize not only the physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles, but also to consider the tumor microenvironment