title: Smart nanoparticles improve therapy for drug-resistant tumors by overcoming pathophysiological barriers.
abstract: The therapeutic outcome of chemotherapy is severely limited by intrinsic or acquired drug resistance, the most common causes of chemotherapy failure. In the past few decades, advancements in nanotechnology have provided alternative strategies for combating tumor drug resistance. Drug-loaded nanoparticles (NPs) have several advantages over the free drug forms, including reduced cytotoxicity, prolonged circulation in the blood and increased accumulation in tumors. Currently, however, nanoparticulate drugs have only marginally improved the overall survival rate in clinical trials because of the various pathophysiological barriers that exist in the tumor microenvironment, such as intratumoral distribution, penetration and intracellular trafficking, etc. Smart NPs with stimulus-adaptable physico-chemical properties have been extensively developed to improve the therapeutic efficacy of nanomedicine. In this review, we summarize the recent advances of employing smart NPs to treat the drug-resistant tumors by overcoming the pathophysiological barriers in the tumor microenvironment.
authors: Department of Polymer Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.|State Key Laboratory of Drug Research & Center of Pharmaceutics, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors: Jian-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Liu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Drug Research & Center of Pharmaceutics, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors: Ting-Ting
authors: TT
authors: Wang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Drug Research & Center of Pharmaceutics, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors: Dang-Ge
authors: DG
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Polymer Science and Technology, Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
authors: An-Jie
authors: AJ
authors: Dong
authors: State Key Laboratory of Drug Research & Center of Pharmaceutics, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors: Ya-Ping
authors: YP
authors: Li
authors: State Key Laboratory of Drug Research & Center of Pharmaceutics, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors: Hai-Jun
authors: HJ
authors: Yu
mesh_terms: D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000187:drug effects*