title: An overview of the effective combination therapies for the treatment of breast cancer.
abstract: Breast cancer (BC) is generally classified based on the receptors overexpressed on the cell nucleus, which include hormone receptors such as progesterone (PR) and estrogen (ER), and HER2. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of cancer that lacks any of these three types of receptor proteins (ER/PR/HER2). Tumor cells exhibit drug resistant phenotypes that decrease the efficacy of chemotherapeutic treatments. Generally, drug resistance has a genetic basis that is caused by an abnormal gene expression, nevertheless, there are several types of drug resistance: efflux pumps reducing the cellular concentration of the drug, alterations in membrane lipids that reduce cellular uptake, increased or altered drug targets, metabolic alteration of the drug, inhibition of apoptosis, repair of the damaged DNA, and alteration of the cell cycle checkpoints. The use of "combination therapy" is recognized as an efficient solution to treat human diseases, in particular, breast cancer. In this review, we give examples of different nanocarriers used to co-deliver multiple therapeutics (chemotherapeutic agent and nucleic acid) to drug-resistant tumor cells, and lastly, we give our recommendations for the future directions for the co-delivery treatments.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacology Deparment, Faculty of Veterinary, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain; C4O Group, Research Unit UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal. Electronic address: cristina.nunez@usc.es.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.affiliation: BIOSCOPE Group, UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal; ProteoMass Scientific Society, Madan Parque, Rua dos Inventores, 2825-182, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Capelo
authors.affiliation: C4O Group, Research Unit UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal; Functional Genomics and Proteomics Unit, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal; Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gilberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Igrejas
authors.affiliation: Pharmacology Deparment, Faculty of Veterinary, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain.
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alfonso
authors.affiliation: Pharmacology Deparment, Faculty of Veterinary, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain.
authors.forename: Luis M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Botana
authors.affiliation: BIOSCOPE Group, UCIBIO-REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal; ProteoMass Scientific Society, Madan Parque, Rua dos Inventores, 2825-182, Caparica, Portugal. Electronic address: cle@fct.unl.pt.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lodeiro
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers
keywords: Breast cancer cell; Combination therapy; Drug delivery; Gene therapy; Nanomedicine