Chen Q, Ke H, Dai Z, Liu Z. Nanoscale theranostics for physical stimulus-responsive cancer therapies.
Biomaterials 2015;
73:214-30. [PMID:
26410788 DOI:
10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.09.018]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2015] [Revised: 09/10/2015] [Accepted: 09/10/2015] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Physical stimulus-responsive therapies often employing multifunctional theranostic agents responsive to external physical stimuli such as light, magnetic field, ultra-sound, radiofrequency, X-ray, etc., have been widely explored as novel cancer therapy strategies, showing encouraging results in many pre-clinical animal experiments. Unlike conventional cancer chemotherapy which often accompanies with severe toxic side effects, physical stimulus-responsive agents usually are non-toxic by themselves and would destruct cancer cells only under specific external stimuli, and thus could offer greatly reduced toxicity and enhanced treatment specificity. In addition, physical stimulus-responsive therapies can also be combined with other traditional therapeutics to achieve synergistic anti-tumor effects via a variety of mechanisms. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in the development of physical stimulus-responsive therapies, and discuss the important roles of nanoscale theranostic agents involved in those non-conventional therapeutic strategies.
Collapse