• Nanomaterials for nucleic acid delivery in cancer immunotherapy: A systematic review study
  • Fereshteh Rajabpour,1 Yeganeh Rashidi,2 Fatemeh Jokar,3 Sepideh Emami jafari,4 Farzane Abdollahi,5,*
    1. Student Research Committee, Bushehr University Of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran
    3. Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences,yazd, Iran
    4. Student Research Committee, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
    5. Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Cancer is an important cause of death worldwide and many efforts have been made to design chemotherapy drugs, but only some of them have shown significant effects in destroying cancer cells, which has created challenges. Nanotechnology has been widely studied and exploited for cancer treatment, as nanoparticles can play an important role as a drug delivery system. Compared with conventional drugs, drug delivery based on nanoparticles has certain advantages such as improved stability and biocompatibility, increased permeability and long-lasting effect, and precise targeting. Hybrid nanoparticles incorporate the combined properties of different nanoparticles, this type of drug carrier system has reached the next level. In addition, drug delivery systems based on nanoparticles play a role in overcoming drug resistance associated with cancer. Due to the size and surface characteristics of nanoparticles and their performance in increasing permeability and retention, nanocarriers can increase the half-life of drugs and also induce their accumulation in tumor tissues. Meanwhile, the targeting system protects normal cells from the cytotoxicity of drugs, which reduces the adverse effects of cancer treatment.
  • Methods: In the following article, data were collected by using keywords and searching in valid databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, ProQuest and PubMed. The statistical population of this study includes all articles published until 2022. In this research, after checking the findings and data quality, we analyzed a total of 11 articles.
  • Results: NPs have shown certain advantages when it comes to antitumor multidrug resistance (MDR), as they provide platforms for drug combination therapy as well as inhibiting the function of certain drug resistance mechanisms, such as efflux transporters on cell membranes. Nanoparticle-based therapy has been reported to have potential in overcoming MDR in several types of cancers, including breast cancer , ovarian cancer , and prostate cancer. Nanoemulsions are usually formed using oil-in-water (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O) techniques, when two immiscible liquids are mixed, they are typically 20 to 200 nm in size. Nanoemulsions have been shown to contain drugs with poor water solubility, so their bioavailability can be increased. Also, nanoemulsions can also be utilized in bioimaging. Nanofibers are another class of NPs.They can be inorganic, organic or a mixture of the two materials.Their large surface areas, , low density and large pore volume allow them to load a many drugs.
  • Conclusion: Compared to traditional drugs, NP-based drug delivery systems are associated with improved pharmacokinetics, biocompatibility, tumor targeting, and stability, while simultaneously playing a significant role in reducing systemic toxicity and overcoming drug resistance. These advantages make NP drugs particularly useful in chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiotherapy, hyperthermia, and gene therapy. Moreover, nanocarrier delivery systems provide improved platforms for combination therapy, that are involved in overcoming mechanisms of drug resistance, including efflux transporter overexpression, defective apoptotic pathway, and hypoxia in tumor microenvironment. Although nanoparticles have raised exciting expectations for cancer diagnosis and treatment, challenges continue to exist and arise, especially in achieving practical application inliving organisms. For new nanomaterials, gene delivery techniques and approaches continue to be developed, the main challenge will be the balancetransfection efficiency, targeting specificity, particle size, biodegradability and cytotoxicity, as well as their short- and long-term fate in the environment.
  • Keywords: Nanoparticle; Chemotherapy; Drug Delivery Systems; Neoplasms