Engineering extracellular matrix to improve drug delivery for cancer therapy
Abstract
As an effective platform to deliver therapeutic drugs into tumors, nanoparticles (NPs) have shown great potential for cancer therapy. However, the tumor microenvironment (TME) contains diverse barriers to the transport of NPs, particularly the dense extracellular matrix (ECM). Thus, engineering the tumor ECM is a promising way to improve drug delivery by degrading existing ECM and/or blocking ECM synthesis. In this review, we present the state-of-the-art advances in engineering the tumor ECM to improve the therapeutic efficacy of NPs, and highlight their advantages and limitations.
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The ECM represents a formidable barrier to drug delivery; its dense, cross-linked architecture hinders diffusion and penetration of therapeutic agents.
“From a therapeutic standpoint, the ECM represents a formidable barrier to drug delivery. Its dense, cross-linked architecture hinders the diffusion and penetration of therapeutic agents [86].”
From Modeling Tumor Microenvironment Complexity In Vitro: Spheroids as Physiologically Relevant Tumor Models and Strategies for Their Analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [86]
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References 62 · Cited by 54
- Authors
- He, X., Yang, Y., Li, L., Zhang, P., Guo, H., Liu, N., Yang, X., & Xu, F.
- Affiliations
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Feng
- Venue
- Drug Discovery Today
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-09
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1727-1734
- ISSN
- 1359-6446 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3039133038
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 0.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Drug Discovery Today (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (51806169)
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (xjj2018256)
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (BX201700186, 2017M623167)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Cellular Mechanics and Interactions
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
- Keywords
- tumor microenvironment, nanoparticle drug delivery, cancer therapy, extracellular matrix degradation, anticancer drug delivery
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Biomedical Engineering, Extracellular Matrix, Humans, Neoplasms, Drug Delivery Systems, Nanoparticles
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