Cancer is one of the major diseases seriously threating human health. Chemotherapy plays a crucial role in clinical cancer treatment at present. However, due to the complexity of cancer pathogenesis mechanism and heterogeneity, single drug therapy usually can't afford to effectively suppress cancer progression and migration. Thus, combination therapy involving multiple anticancer mechanisms has been becoming an increasingly important therapeutic strategy in clinical practice. Cancer treatment with nanocarriers which allow for the co-delivery of both drug and gene has been the focus of recent active research in biomedicine field because of their ability to enhance anticancer efficacy and reduce adverse side effects. This article reviews the recent advances on smart drug and gene co-delivery carriers. Various co-delivery carriers are classified on the basis of material type, and the corresponding preparation methods and action mechanisms are introduced respectively in this review. These smart co-delivery carriers will undergo a structural or conformational change upon exposure to intrinsic stimulating factors of tumor microenvironment (e.g. pH, glutathione, enzyme) or exogenous stimuli (e.g. temperature, ultrasound), resulting in the controlled release of both drug and gene to generate synergistic therapeutic effects against cancer. In addition, some personal perspectives on this field are also presented.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Inorganic nanoparticle-based smart drug and gene co-delivery carriers
2.1 Mesoporous silica nanoparticle-based co-delivery carriers
2.2 Other types of inorganic nanoparticle-based co-delivery carriers
3 Polymer-based smart drug and gene co-delivery carriers
3.1 Polymer composite-based co-delivery carriers
3.2 Polymeric micelle and vesicle-based co-delivery carriers
3.3 Nanogel-based co-delivery carriers
4 Liposome-based smart drug and gene co-delivery carriers
4.1 pH-responsive liposomes
4.2 Thermo-responsive liposomes
4.3 Other stimuli responsive liposomes
5 Conclusion