Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Conclusion and Perspectives
Although Paul Ehrlich's dream - “magic bullets” - did not stand the test of time
one century ago, the creative concept of “targeted therapy” that drugs are capable
of going straight to their intended targets has inspired generations of scientists to
continually pursue targeted based delivery approaches to selectively treat human
diseases. In addition to passive targeting, active targeting that is based on the avid
and specific interaction between the targeting ligands and the molecular targets has
drawn much attention. Today, in view of the tremendous efforts in developing
targeted therapy, an increasing number of specific internalizing molecules have
been adapted for active targeting of tumors or infectious diseases. Moreover, a
better understanding of the molecular events associated with human diseases and
the emergence of new technologies (such as nanotechnology, RNAi, Cell-SELEX)
have greatly accelerated the drug discovery process over the years.
Despite these advances bringing these targeted therapies to the clinic is currently
a slow process. For example, one important concern for using cell surface receptors
for active targeting is to engineer the targeting ligands with therapeutic agents or
their carriers without disrupting the receptor-binding ability or reducing the thera-
peutic efficacies of the drugs. In the regard, a precisely engineered nanocarrier with
multiple functions may be considered a promising therapeutic system. Ideally, an
intelligent multifunctional nanocarrier with combinatorial targeting ability can
efficiently encapsulate multiple drugs, prolong circulation time, accurately accu-
mulate and release drugs in the targeted cells/tissues, eventually achieving maximal
therapeutic efficacy and providing custom/tailored treatments. Meanwhile, such
multifunctional nanocarriers can be used to visualize their location in the body for
real-time monitoring of therapeutic responses.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health
AI29329, AI42552 and HL07470 awarded to J.J.R.
Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.
Authors' contributions: JZ drafted the manuscript. JR revised it and gave final approval of the
version to be published. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
References
Agarwal, A., Saraf, S., Asthana, A., Gupta, U., Gajbhiye, V. & Jain, N. K. (2008) Ligand based
dendritic systems for tumor targeting. Int J Pharm , 350, 3-13.
Akbulut, M., D'Addio, S. M., Gindy, M. E. & Prud'homme, R. K. (2009) Novel methods of tar-
geted drug delivery: the potential of multifunctional nanoparticles. Expert Review of Clinical
Pharmacology , 2, 265-282.
Alam, M. R., Dixit, V., Kang, H., Li, Z. B., Chen, X., Trejo, J., Fisher, M. & Juliano, R. L. (2008)
Intracellular delivery of an anionic antisense oligonucleotide via receptor-mediated endocyto-
sis. Nucleic Acids Res , 36, 2764-76.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search