Nanoscale Drug Delivery Systems in Glioblastoma

Abstract

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive cerebral tumor in adults. However, the current pharmaceuticals in GBM treatment are mainly restricted to few chemotherapeutic drugs and have limited efficacy. Therefore, various nanoscale biomaterials that possess distinct structure and unique property were constructed as vehicles to precisely deliver molecules with potential therapeutic effect. In this review, nanoparticle drug delivery systems including CNTs, GBNs, C-dots, MOFs, Liposomes, MSNs, GNPs, PMs, Dendrimers and Nanogel were exemplified. The advantages and disadvantages of these nanoparticles in GBM treatment were illustrated.

Keywords: Biomaterials; Drug delivery systems; Glioblastoma; Nanoparticles.

Fig. 1

Conceptual diagrams of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) (a) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) (b). Referred from [23], OA

Fig. 2

a Two main routes to prepare GBNs: “Top-down” splitting approach and “Bottom-up” synthesis approach. b Classifications of graphenes based on lateral size. The GQDs represent graphene quantum dots. Referred from [34] with permission

Fig. 3

a Crystal structures of different MOFs. b High resolution TEM image of Uio-66. Referred from [64, 65] with permission

Fig. 4

The structure, vesicle size (a) and lamellarity classification (b) of liposome drug delivery systems. c, d The cryo-electron tomography liposomes Doxil structure with the liposome density shown in purple and doxorubicin density shown in pink. Referred from [74, 75] with permission

Fig. 5

The TEM images of gold nanoparticles with cage-like (a), cylindrical (b), triangular (c) and hexagonal (d) morphologies. Referred from [–114] with permission

Fig. 6

a Schematic illustration of the core–shell structure of a polymer micelle. b Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), tomography (cryo-ET) and computational 3D reconstruction of multicompartment micelles. Referred from [135, 136] respectively with permission

Fig. 7

Schematic representation of pharmaceutical applications of dendrimers. Referred from [164] with permission

Fig. 8

Schematic representation of the network construction of hydrogels, micelles, nanogels and microgels. Referred from [175] with permission

Fig. 9

a Schematic representation of the conceptual passive targeting (EPR effect) of nanomedicine. b Active targeting of nanomedicine grafted with peptide or antibody able to bind specific receptors overexpressed by (1) cancer cells or (2) endothelial cells. Referred from [199] with permission