Novel Regimens for Targeted Cancer Therapy

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Targeting and Design".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2023) | Viewed by 6198

Special Issue Editors

Department of Applied Physics, University of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland
Interests: nanotechnology; multifunctional porous nanoparticles; biomaterials; nanomedicine

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Guest Editor
1. Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, P.O 56 (Viikinkaari 5 E), 00014 Helsinki, Finland
2. School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland
Interests: mass spectrometry; medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry; organic chemistry; synthetic chemistry
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to announce the launch of a new Special Issue on “Novel Regimens for Targeted Cancer Therapy”. Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Compared to traditional therapeutic regimens, targeted cancer therapy presents the advantages of high therapeutic efficacy and low adverse effects. Researchers worldwide have made great progress in the development of advanced tools and technologies in this research field. Many of these novel regimens are under clinical trials and show great potential to offer therapeutic options for previously untreatable cancers. This issue aims to highlight cutting-edge imaging, therapy, and theranostics regimens with small molecules, macromolecules, or nanoparticles for targeted cancer treatment. Both research papers and review articles are welcomed. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Wujun Xu
Dr. Juri M. Timonen
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • cancer targeting
  • therapy
  • imaging
  • theranostics
  • nanotechnology
  • small molecules
  • macromolecules

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5412 KiB  
Article
Biomimetic Inorganic Nanovectors as Tumor-Targeting Theranostic Platform against Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
by Huang Wen, Pekka Poutiainen, Enkhzaya Batnasan, Leena Latonen, Vesa-Pekka Lehto and Wujun Xu
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(10), 2507; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15102507 - 22 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1669
Abstract
Mesoporous silicon nanoparticles (PSi NPs) are promising platforms of nanomedicine because of their good compatibility, high payload capacities of anticancer drugs, and easy chemical modification. Here, PSi surfaces were functionalized with bisphosphonates (BP) for radiolabeling, loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) for chemotherapy, and the [...] Read more.
Mesoporous silicon nanoparticles (PSi NPs) are promising platforms of nanomedicine because of their good compatibility, high payload capacities of anticancer drugs, and easy chemical modification. Here, PSi surfaces were functionalized with bisphosphonates (BP) for radiolabeling, loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) for chemotherapy, and the NPs were coated with cancer cell membrane (CCm) for homotypic cancer targeting. To enhance the CCm coating, the NP surfaces were covered with polyethylene glycol prior to the CCm coating. The effects of the BP amount and pH conditions on the radiolabeling efficacy were studied. The maximum BP was (2.27 wt%) on the PSi surfaces, and higher radiochemical yields were obtained for 99mTc (97% ± 2%) and 68Ga (94.6% ± 0.2%) under optimized pH conditions (pH = 5). The biomimetic NPs exhibited a good radiochemical and colloidal stability in phosphate-buffered saline and cell medium. In vitro studies demonstrated that the biomimetic NPs exhibited an enhanced cellular uptake and increased delivery of DOX to cancer cells, resulting in better chemotherapy than free DOX or pure NPs. Altogether, these findings indicate the potential of the developed platform for cancer treatment and diagnosis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Regimens for Targeted Cancer Therapy)
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12 pages, 4266 KiB  
Article
Photochemical Internalization with Fimaporfin: Enhanced Bleomycin Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer
by Paula Enzian and Ramtin Rahmanzadeh
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(8), 2040; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15082040 - 28 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1556
Abstract
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) still represents the world’s sixth most common tumor entity, with increasing incidence. The reachability of light makes HNSCC suitable for light-based therapies such as Photochemical Internalization (PCI). The drug Bleomycin is cytotoxic and used as an [...] Read more.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) still represents the world’s sixth most common tumor entity, with increasing incidence. The reachability of light makes HNSCC suitable for light-based therapies such as Photochemical Internalization (PCI). The drug Bleomycin is cytotoxic and used as an anti-tumor medication. Since Bleomycin is endocytosed as a relatively large molecule, part of it is degraded in lysosomes before reaching its intracellular target. The goal of our study was to improve the intracellular availability of Bleomycin with PCI. We investigate the intracellular delivery of Bleomycin after PCI with the photosensitizer Fimaporfin. A systematic variation of Bleomycin and Fimaporfin concentrations and light irradiation led to the pronounced cell death of HNSCC cells. After optimization, the same level of tumor cell death of 75% was reached with a 20-fold lower Bleomycin concentration. This would allow treatment of HNSCC with high local tumor cell death and reduce the side effects of Bleomycin, e.g., lung fibrosis, at the same time. This demonstrates the increased efficacy of the anti-tumor medication Bleomycin in combination with PCI. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Regimens for Targeted Cancer Therapy)
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17 pages, 3652 KiB  
Article
ZNF703 mRNA-Targeting Antisense Oligonucleotide Blocks Cell Proliferation and Induces Apoptosis in Breast Cancer Cell Lines
by Sandra Udu-Ituma, José Adélaïde, Thi Khanh Le, Kenneth Omabe, Pascal Finetti, Clément Paris, Arnaud Guille, François Bertucci, Daniel Birnbaum, Palma Rocchi and Max Chaffanet
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(7), 1930; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15071930 - 11 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2110
Abstract
The luminal B molecular subtype of breast cancers (BC) accounts for more than a third of BCs and is associated with aggressive clinical behavior and poor prognosis. The use of endocrine therapy in BC treatment has significantly contributed to the decrease in the [...] Read more.
The luminal B molecular subtype of breast cancers (BC) accounts for more than a third of BCs and is associated with aggressive clinical behavior and poor prognosis. The use of endocrine therapy in BC treatment has significantly contributed to the decrease in the number of deaths in recent years. However, most BC patients with prolonged exposure to estrogen receptor (ER) selective modulators such as tamoxifen develop resistance and become non-responsive over time. Recent studies have implicated overexpression of the ZNF703 gene in BC resistance to endocrine drugs, thereby highlighting ZNF703 inhibition as an attractive modality in BC treatment, especially luminal B BCs. However, there is no known inhibitor of ZNF703 due to its nuclear association and non-enzymatic activity. Here, we have developed an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) against ZNF703 mRNA and shown that it downregulates ZNF703 protein expression. ZNF703 inhibition decreased cell proliferation and induced apoptosis. Combined with cisplatin, the anti-cancer effects of ZNF703-ASO9 were improved. Moreover, our work shows that ASO technology may be used to increase the number of targetable cancer genes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Regimens for Targeted Cancer Therapy)
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