title: Prostate cancer relevant antigens and enzymes for targeted drug delivery.
abstract: Chemotherapy is one of the most widely used approaches in combating advanced prostate cancer, but its therapeutic efficacy is usually insufficient due to poor specificity and associated toxicity. Lack of targeted delivery to prostate cancer cells is also the primary obstacles in achieving feasible therapeutic effect of other promising agents including peptide, protein, and nucleic acid. Consequently, there remains a critical need for strategies to increase the selectivity of anti-prostate cancer agents. This review will focus on various prostate cancer-relevant antigens and enzymes that could be exploited for prostate cancer targeted drug delivery. Among various targeting strategies, active targeting is the most advanced approach to specifically deliver drugs to their designated cancer cells. In this approach, drug carriers are modified with targeting ligands that can specifically bind to prostate cancer-specific antigens. Moreover, there are several specific enzymes in the tumor microenvironment of prostate cancer that can be exploited for stimulus-responsive drug delivery systems. These systems can specifically release the active drug in the tumor microenvironment of prostate cancer, leading to enhanced tumor penetration efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City 64108, USA.
authors.forename: Ashutosh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barve
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City 64108, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City 64108, USA. Electronic address: chengkun@umkc.edu.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: HER2; PSA; PSCA; PSMA; Prostate cancer; Tumor microenvironment