title: Lipid nanoparticles for chemotherapeutic applications: strategies to improve anticancer efficacy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chemotherapy remains the major form of treatment for cancer. However, chemotherapy often fails due to a variety of barriers, resulting in a limited intratumoral drug disposition. Recently, lipid nanoparticles (LNs, i.e., solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs)) have been shown to provide a favorable means for efficiently delivering drugs to tumor sites, while minimizing their side effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  The delivery of drugs to tumors is restricted by a series of barriers, including the tumor abnormalities, strong adverse effects and poor specificity of cytotoxic drugs, and the induction of multidrug resistance (MDR). The present review summarizes the strategies using SLNs and/or NLCs to improve the anticancer efficacy of cytotoxic drugs, including passive targeting, active targeting, long circulating and MDR reversing. Specifically, the most significant in vitro and in vivo results on the use of SLNs and/or NLCs are highlighted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The future success of SLNs and NLCs for administration of cytotoxic drugs will depend on their ability to efficiently encapsulate and release drugs, the possibility for large-scale production, selective tumor cells targeting and increased antitumor efficacy with reduced tissue toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Department of Pharmaceutics Science, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Renchao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Keru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Haibing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004337:Drug Carriers; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids; D053758:Nanoparticles; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers; D008055:Lipids