Targeted Drug Delivery via Chitosan-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles

The devastating effects of chemotherapeutic agents have been observed on healthy cells as well as tumor cells because they are nonspecifically distributed all over the body. This treatment results in hazardous side effects and excessive toxicity. Targeted drug delivery has emerged to overcome the lack of specificity of conventional chemotherapy. Nanoparticles used for drug targeting are promising to circumvent these challenges, by enabling the localization of high drug amounts at the site of disease. When drugs are conjugated on nanoparticles, it is possible to increase their half-life while decreasing the side effects and improving therapeutic efficacy. Several therapeutic nanoparticles that selectively bind and target cancer cells have been approved for clinical use (Davis, M.E., Zuckerman, J.E., Choi, C.H.J., Seligson, D., Tolcher, A., Alabi, C.A., et al., 2010. Evidence ofRNAi in humans from systemically administered siRNA via targeted nanoparticles. Nature 464 (7291), 1067–1070.; Hrkach, J., Von Hoff, D., Ali, M.M., Andrianova, E., Auer, J., Campbell, T., et al., 2012. Preclinical developmentand clinical translation of a PSMA-targeted docetaxel nanoparticle with a differentiated pharmacologicalprofile. Sci. Transl. Med. 4 (128), 128ra39-128ra39; Tabernero, J., Shapiro, G.I., LoRusso, P.M., Cervantes, A., Schwartz, G.K., Weiss, G.J., et al., 2013. Firstin-humans trial of an RNA interference therapeutic targeting VEGF and KSP in cancer patients with liverinvolvement. Cancer Discov. 3 (4), 406–417). Surface modifications of nanoparticles with organic polymers enable the stabilization of nanoparticles, reduce agglomeration, provide functional groups for further alterations, furnish internal cavities for loading of therapeutics, and prevent immediate uptake of drug-loaded nanoparticles by the reticuloendothelial system. Polymer-coated magnetic nanoparticles, characterized by high surface to volume ratios, are excellent scaffolds for loading targeting moieties, permeation enhancers, imaging tags, and drugs, simultaneously providing diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities. Multifunctionality of nanoparticle constructs can facilitate combination therapies. Nanoparticles can be routed to the tumor tissue via passive or active targeting. Nanotechnology has the potential to change cancer diagnosis and therapy fundamentally, which may bring new insights to the chemotherapy