Alendronate-modified polydopamine-coated paclitaxel nanoparticles for osteosarcoma-targeted therapy

Developing Actively Targeted Nanoparticles to Fight Cancer: Focus on Italian Research

Active targeting is a valuable and promising approach with which to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of nanodelivery systems, and the development of tumor-targeted nanoparticles has therefore attracted much research attention. In this field, the research carried out in Italian Pharmaceutical Technology academic groups has been focused on the development of actively targeted nanosystems using a multidisciplinary approach. To highlight these efforts, this review reports a thorough description of the last 10 years of Italian research results on the development of actively targeted nanoparticles to direct drugs towards different receptors that are overexpressed on cancer cells or in the tumor microenvironment. In particular, the review discusses polymeric nanocarriers, liposomes, lipoplexes, niosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, squalene nanoassemblies and nanobubbles. For each nanocarrier, the main ligands, conjugation strategies and target receptors are described. The literature indicates that polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes stand out as key tools for improving specific drug delivery to the site of action. In addition, solid lipid nanoparticles, squalene nanoparticles and nanobubbles have also been successfully proposed. Taken together, these strategies all offer many platforms for the design of nanocarriers that are suitable for future clinical translation.

Progress of biomaterials for bone tumor therapy

Bone tumors are currently a major clinical challenge. In recent decades, strategies using well-designed versatile biomaterials for the treatment of bone tumors have emerged and attracted extensive research interest. Suitable biomaterials not only facilitate repair for bone defects aroused by surgical intervention but also help deliver antineoplastic drugs to the target site or provide photothermal/magnetothermal therapy to kill bone tumor cells. Thus, the development of biomaterials exhibits a great perspective for future bone tumor treatment.We summarize the recent progress of versatile biomaterials for bone tumor therapy, with an emphasis on photothermal/magnetothermal therapy and drug delivery.With the further understanding and development of biomaterials, multifunctional biomaterials have been proposed for bone tumor treatment. Through the interdisciplinary cooperation from the fields of biomedicine, clinical medicine and engineering, multifunctional biomaterials will perfectly match individual bone defects in the clinic with low cost in the future.

Alendronate/folic acid-decorated polymeric nanoparticles for hierarchically targetable chemotherapy against bone metastatic breast cancer

To considerably enhance treatment efficacy for bone metastatic breast cancer via dual bone/tumor-targeted chemotherapy, a nanoparticle-based delivery system comprising poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) as the hydrophobic core coated with alendronate-modified d-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (ALN-TPGS) and folic acid-conjugated TPGS (FA-TPGS) was developed as a vehicle for paclitaxel (PTX) in this work. The ALN/FA-decorated nanoparticles not only showed superior ALN-mediated binding affinity for hydroxyapatite abundant in bone tissue but also promoted uptake of payloads by folate receptor-overexpressing cancer cells to significantly augment PTX cytotoxicity. Notably, through dual-targetable delivery to the bone matrix and folate receptor-overexpressing 4T1 tumors, the PTX-loaded nanoparticles substantially accumulated in bone metastases in vivo and inhibited 4T1 tumor growth and lung metastasis, leading to significant improvement of the survival rate of treated mice. Upon treatment with the ALN/FA-decorated PTX-loaded nanoparticles, the bone destruction and bone loss of the tumor-bearing mice were appreciably retarded, and the adverse effects on normal tissues were alleviated. These results demonstrate that the ALN/FA-decorated PTX-loaded delivery system developed in this study shows great promise for the effective treatment of bone metastatic breast cancer.

Design strategies and evolving role of biomaterial assisted treatment of osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most commonly diagnosed form of bone cancer. It is characterized by a high risk of developing lung metastasis as the disease progresses. Standard treatment includes combination of surgical intervention, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the non-specificity of potent chemotherapeutic agents often leads to major side effects. In this review, we discuss the role of various classes of biomaterials, including both organic as well as inorganic in realizing the local and systemic delivery of therapeutic agents like drugs, radioisotopes and even gene silencing agents to treat osteosarcoma. Biomaterial assisted unconventional therapies such as targeted therapy, nanotherapy, magnetic hyperthermia, gene therapy, photothermal and photodynamic therapies are also being explored. A wide variety of biomaterials including lipids, carbon-based materials, polymers, silica, bioactive glass, hydroxyapatite and metals are designed as delivery systems with the desired loading efficiency, release profile, and on-demand delivery. Among others, liposomal carriers have attracted a great deal of attention due to their capability to encapsulate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. Polymeric systems have high drug loading efficiency and stability and can even be tailored to achieve desired size and physiochemical properties. Carbon-based systems can also be seen as an upcoming class of therapeutics with great potential in treating different types of cancer. Inorganic materials like silica nanoparticles have high drug payload owing to their mesoporous structure. On the other hand, ceramic materials like bioactive glass and hydroxyapatite not only act as excellent delivery vectors but also participate in osteo-regeneration activity. These multifunctional biomaterials are also being investigated for their theranostic abilities to monitor cancer ablation. This review systematically discusses the vast landscape of biomaterials along with their challenges and respective opportunities for osteosarcoma therapy.

A Review of Nanotechnology for Targeted Anti-schistosomal Therapy

Schistosomiasis is one of the major parasitic diseases and second most prevalent among the group of neglected diseases. The prevalence of schistosomiasis may be due to environmental and socio-economic factors, as well as the unavailability of vaccines for schistosomiasis. To date, current treatment; mainly the drug praziquantel (PZQ), has not been effective in treating the early forms of schistosome species. The development of drug resistance has been documented in several regions globally, due to the overuse of PZQ, rate of parasitic mutation, poor treatment compliance, co-infection with different strains of schistosomes and the overall parasite load. Hence, exploring the schistosome tegument may be a potential focus for the design and development of targeted anti-schistosomal therapy, with higher bioavailability as molecular targets using nanotechnology. This review aims to provide a concise incursion on the use of various advance approaches to achieve targeted anti-schistosomal therapy, mainly through the use of nano-enabled drug delivery systems. It also assimilates the molecular structure and function of the schistosome tegument and highlights the potential molecular targets found on the tegument, for effective specific interaction with receptors for more efficacious anti-schistosomal therapy.

A novel bio-inspired conductive, biocompatible, and adhesive terpolymer based on polyaniline, polydopamine, and polylactide as scaffolding biomaterial for tissue engineering application

A novel electrically conductive nanofibrous scaffold based on polyaniline-co-(polydopamine-grafted-poly(d,l-lactide)) [PANI-co-(PDA-g-PLA)] was fabricated using electrospinning technique and its physicochemical as well as biological characteristics toward bone tissue engineering (TE) were investigated extensively. In detail, PANI-co-PDA was synthesized via a one-step chemical oxidization approach. Then, d,l-lactaide monomer was grafted onto PDA segment using a ring opening polymerization (ROP) to afford PANI-co-(PDA-g-PLA) terpolymer. The successful synthesis of PANI-co-(PDA-g-PLA) terpolymer was confirmed using FTIR spectroscopy as well as TGA analysis. Finally, a solution of the synthesized terpolymer was electrospun to fabricate a conductive nanofibrous scaffold. Some physicochemical features such as mechanical, conductivity, electroactivity, hydrophobicity, and morphology as well as biological characteristics including biocompatibility, biodegradability, as well as enhancing the cells adhesion and proliferation were investigated. According to the above-mentioned experimental results, the fabricated electrospun nanofibers can be considered as a potential scaffold for TE application, mainly due to its proper physicochemical and biological properties.

Size Matters in the Cytotoxicity of Polydopamine Nanoparticles in Different Types of Tumors

Polydopamine has acquired great relevance in the field of nanomedicine due to its physicochemical properties. Previously, it has been reported that nanoparticles synthetized from this polymer are able to decrease the viability of breast and colon tumor cells. In addition, it is well known that the size of therapeutic particles plays an essential role in their effect. As a consequence, the influence of this parameter on the cytotoxicity of polydopamine nanoparticles was studied in this work. For this purpose, polydopamine nanoparticles with three different diameters (115, 200 and 420 nm) were synthetized and characterized. Their effect on the viability of distinct sorts of human carcinomas (breast, colon, liver and lung) and stromal cells was investigated, as well as the possible mechanisms that could be responsible for such cytotoxicity. Moreover, polydopamine nanoparticles were also loaded with doxorubicin and the therapeutic action of the resulting nanosystem was analyzed. As a result, it was demonstrated that a smaller nanoparticle size is related to a more enhanced antiproliferative activity, which may be a consequence of polydopamine's affinity for iron ions. Smaller nanoparticles would be able to adsorb more lysosomal Fe3+ and, when they are loaded with doxorubicin, a synergistic effect can be achieved.