Engineered strategies to enhance tumor penetration of drug-loaded nanoparticles
Abstract
Nanocarriers have been widely employed in preclinical studies and clinical trials for the delivery of anticancer drugs. The most important causes of failure in clinical translation of nanocarriers is their inefficient accumulation and penetration which arises from special characteristics of tumor microenvironment such as insufficient blood supply, dense extracellular matrix, and elevated interstitial fluid pressure. Various strategies such as engineering extracellular matrix, optimizing the physicochemical properties of nanocarriers have been proposed to increase the depth of tumor penetration; however, these strategies have not been very successful so far. Novel strategies such as transformable nanocarriers, transcellular transport of peptide-modified nanocarriers, and bio-inspired carriers have recently been emerged as an advanced generation of drug carriers. In this study, the latest developments of nanocarrier-based drug delivery to solid tumor are presented with their possible limitations. Then, the prospects of advanced drug delivery systems are discussed in detail.
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Cancer cells primarily use glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids to meet their biosynthetic needs.
“In other words, cancer cells primarily use glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids to meet their biosynthetic needs [49–52].”
From Mesenchymal stromal cells in bone marrow niche of patients with multiple myeloma: a double-edged sword (2025) · cites this paper as [52]
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Hosseinpour, A., Soltani, M., & Souri, M. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-52003-9 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Self-citationKiani Shahvandi, M., Souri, M., Tavasoli, S., Moradi Kashkooli, F., Kar, S., & Soltani, M. (2023) · Computers in Biology and Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.107574 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Self-citationKamrani, S., Naseramini, R., Khani, P., Razavi, Z. S., Afkhami, H., Atashzar, M. R., Nasri, F., Alavimanesh, S., Saeidi, F., & Ronaghi, H. (2025) · Cancer Cell International · doi:10.1186/s12935-025-03741-x · Cited by 27 · see citing works
“In other words, cancer cells primarily use glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids to meet their biosynthetic needs [49–52].”
Microfluidic systems for modeling digestive cancer: a review of recent progress
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Souri, M., Soltani, M., Moradi Kashkooli, F., & Kiani Shahvandi, M.
- Affiliations
- K. N. Toosi University of Technology (IR)
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Soltani, M.
- Venue
- Journal of Controlled Release
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-01
- Volume
- 341
- Pages
- 227-246
- ISSN
- 0168-3659 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3216755434
- Cited by
- 178
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Controlled Release (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Interference and Gene Delivery
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
- Keywords
- tumor penetration, drug-loaded nanoparticles, nanocarriers, interstitial fluid pressure, tumor microenvironment, transcellular transport, nanoparticle physicochemical properties, clinical translation of nanomedicine
- MeSH terms
- Antineoplastic Agents, Drug Carriers, Humans, Neoplasms, Drug Delivery Systems, Nanoparticles, Tumor Microenvironment
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