Stimuli-responsive nanocarriers for precision cancer therapy: a short communication
The cancer is still one of the world’s biggest public health problems due to its diversity (tumor), multiresistance, and non-specific delivery by drugs like chemotherapy. Oncological precision medicine is changing treatment paradigms towards targeted therapies with high specificity and low-toxicity options for patients’ use. Among them, stimuli-responsive nanocarriers are smart drug delivery systems that release drugs in response to endogenous stimuli, pH, redox potential, enzymes, reactive oxygen species, and hypoxia, or exogenous stimuli (light, magnetic fields, ultrasound, and temperature). The intelligent nanovehicles utilize properties specific to tumors’ environment that allow precise targeting with targeted delivery mechanisms, resulting in better penetration rates as well as lower toxicity levels within tissues. Nanotech innovations allow for multi-functional devices that incorporate anticancer drugs as well as genetic treatments; immune responses are also incorporated to provide diagnostics on one device platform. Though there are some favorable results from laboratory studies as well as successful trials with nanoparticles medicines, there are problems such as production difficulties for drugs’ approval process, variation among individuals due to genetics, etc. The paper reviews current developments concerning stimulus-responsive nanoparticles; it also describes how these agents work as a means to treat cancers precisely.