Nanotechnology-Based Therapies for Rare Solid Tumors -Overview

Introduction

The field of nanotechnology investigates molecules at the atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scales to identify health-improving properties. Nanotechnology investigates biosystems utilizing nanoscale concepts and techniques. Combined with modern biology and medicine advances, it is becoming increasingly possible to produce nanoscale materials for use in biological structures.

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is a very complicated disease that evolves in many steps, such as cells resistant to death, cells that grow out of control, changes in cells connected, tissue invasion, spread, and angiogenesis. Cancer usually starts as a small growth in one place, but it can spread to other body parts, making it hard to treat. Cancer is becoming more common and killing more people around the world.

Rising pollution, radiation, a sedentary lifestyle, an unbalanced diet, infections with microorganisms that cause cancer, and other factors (like genetics) that are also becoming common in developing countries can all make cancer more likely. Any of these factors can damage the DNA genes in host cells, leading to cancer. These genes are called oncogenes.

What Is Nanotechnology?

Nanoparticles are used in medicine because they have special qualities: a surface-to-mass ratio much higher than that of other particles and the ability to hold and move stuff like probes, proteins, and drugs.

Nanotechnology-based testing technologies are being worked on as useful, quick, and inexpensive ways to rule out cancer. Nanoparticles collect cancer signs like exosomes, circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, and proteins linked to cancer so that cancer can be diagnosed more accurately. Nanoparticles have much surface area compared to their volume, which is one of the main reasons they can be used to find cancer. Antibodies, small molecules, peptides, aptamers, and other molecules can be densely attached to the surfaces of nanoparticles to find specific cancer molecules. Cancer cells can also have multiple effects when exposed to different binding ligands, making a test more specific and sensitive.

What Are the Other Diagnostic Methods?

Imaging methods and the study of the shape of organs (histopathology) or cells (cytology) are now used to help find cancer early.

• Imaging Methods- Imaging tools let doctors see changes in tissue that can help them find cancer cells. This takes a long time; meanwhile, cancer cells may have time to multiply and spread into healthy tissue. Also, the imaging tools can differentiate between benign and malignant tumors.

• Cytology and Histopathology- Cytology and histopathology reliably and independently find early signs of cancer; it is important to develop effective ways to find cancer early.

What Are the Various Applications of Nanotechnology in Cancer?

Nanoparticles have been used in many different ways because of their unique properties. Nanoparticles come in many different sizes, shapes, and structures. They are useful because they can do more than one thing: target disease cells actively and passively, extend the time that drugs stay in the bloodstream, improve the entry and accumulation of drugs in tumor sites, overcome drug resistance, make drugs safer and more tolerable, and help the immune system.

• Detection of Cancer: Nanotechnology has not been used to diagnose cancer, but it has been used in many medical tests and screens, like gold nanoparticles in home pregnancy tests. Nanoparticles are being used to capture cancer biomarkers. The binding protein of cancer cells can have multiple effects, which can help with diagnosis accuracy and specificity.

• Identify Biomarkers of Malignancy: A biomarker for cancer is a biological molecule that can be found in the blood, different tissues, and body fluids like saliva and urine, which shows that there are cancer cells in the body. Proteins (released proteins or cell surface proteins), carbohydrates, or nucleic acids are all cancer biomarkers released by the body or cancer cells during carcinogenesis. Measuring the levels of cancer biomarkers helps in the detection of cancer. Nanotechnology has superior selection and sensitivity; adding nanoparticles to biosensors can make them more accurate.

• Detecting DNA of a Tumor: As circulating tumor DNA, fragments from tumors have 100 to 200 base pairs along the body. Genetic problems in cancer cells can be found using ctDNA, which can come from primary tumors or circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Finding genetic problems helps find cancer before any symptoms show up.

• Locate MicroRNA: Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are naturally occurring nucleotide sequences, as many miRNAs can control many gene expressions and target a single mRNA. These genetically encoded regulatory molecules help gene expression that controls cell division, growth, and death. When the production of miRNAs is out of control, cells will not work normally, which eventually leads to cancer. Oncogenic viruses cause cancer by changing the regulation of miRNAs in several ways. Different tissue or organ-specific miRNA markers can be used for early diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy tracking.

• Methylation in DNA: The genome methylation landscape (Methylscape) is present in most types of cancer. This means that it might be possible to use it as a sign of cancer. Various tests are present to find differences between cancer and normal genomes. This helps to make one-step electrochemical tests that are easy, quick, selective, and sensitive for diagnosing cancer.

• Locating Extracellular Vesicles: Extracellular vehicles are tiny bubbles that carry molecular information from mother cells, like miRNA, DNA, protein, and mRNA. They make it possible to find tumor cells at molecular levels that are normally hard to get to.

What Are the Several Applications of Nanotechnology in Detecting Cancer Cells?

• Detecting Circulating Tumor Cells: Metastasis kills 90 percent of solid tumor patients. Metastatic dissemination occurs when a tumor cell invades surrounding tissue, enters the blood and lymph systems, and spreads to microvessels in other tissues. Finally, these cells leave the bloodstream and survive elsewhere. This foreign microenvironment promotes secondary cancers. Cancer diagnosis and dissemination are affected by CTCs, which circulate cancer cells.

1. CTCs have been intensively studied in liquid biopsies because they may be useful. CTC detection studies tumor molecular organization minimally invasively. CTCs vary significantly and are scarce, making extraction and definition difficult with current techniques. Researchers are using nanotechnology to find CTCs. These technologies can describe cells and molecules to help identify diseases early and track therapeutic efficacy and disease progression.

2. Nanomaterials have applications for CTC detection due to their high surface-to-volume ratio. High-efficiency inhibitors can adhere to them and find cancer cells. CTC isolation is more specific, recoverable, and findable.

3. Nanomaterials that detect CTC help identify nanoparticles that enhance CTC collection sensitivity and specificity. This may aid in cancer diagnosis.

• Proteins on Cell Surfaces: The major approach to identifying cancer cells is nanoparticle probes coupled to proteins, short peptides, and antibodies. These tools bind to cancer cell surface markers and proceed inside to identify genetic material. Antibodies can detect cell surface chemicals attached to CTCs, but cell size, shape, and density can assist in detecting them. A surface biomarker abundantly expressed on CTCs from many forms of human cancer, it can be employed as a cell surface biomarker and uses anti-EpCAM medications.

• Results Predicted on mRNA: Nanoparticles detect nucleic acids within and outside cells. New gold nanoparticle probes containing nucleotides linked to fluorophore-labeled complements can detect mRNA in living cells using transfection agents and "nanoflares." Nanoflares overcome numerous problems in intracellular probe sensitivity and effectiveness.

What Are Various Cancer Treatments?

Nanoparticles' unique and helpful properties make them the best treatment. Nanoparticles need to be 0.1 µm or smaller to transport drugs. Delivery and release of medicines require biodegradable nanoparticles.

• Radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery are effective cancer treatments. All kill cancer and healthy cells. Environmentally benign, chemically stable, and non-toxic nanoparticles distribute drugs well.

• Nanotechnology and nanoparticles deliver medications more efficiently and precisely than chemotherapy; thus, cancer treatment has centered on them. Physical and metabolic barriers hinder treatments from reaching tumors, and cellular and non-cellular mechanisms can make malignancies drug-resistant, causing recurrence.

• Drug transport to tumor tissue and efficacy are reduced in poorly vascularized tumor regions and microenvironments. High interstitial and low microvascular pressures can also prevent drug extravasation. One hundred anti-cancer drugs could be given nanoscale with nanoparticles to improve pharmacokinetics.

• Virus-like particles (VLPs) can be created for these objectives without infecting the organism. Unlike the virus strain, it contains nothing; therefore, using it is safe. It is safe for living beings.

• Injecting or inhaling this VLP causes a tumor-area immunological reaction that releases numerous neutrophils. These stimulate cytokines and T lymphocytes to fight metastasized malignancy. It can stop cancer growth or kill all cells. No chemotherapy is needed for this method. Our natural defenses combat cancer cells. A more thorough analysis is needed, but the odds are strong and growing.

• More biocompatible than other nanoparticles of its size, nano-diamonds have several biological applications. They can detect cancer or deliver doxorubicin to metastasized tumor cells as biomarkers and tracers.

• Immune-system cancer treatment is possible with nanotechnology. Nanoparticles are better at transmitting antigens, nucleic acids, and antibodies. Nanotechnology restores tumor-fighting immune system function with synthetic or natural molecules. Researchers discovered that small chemicals such as antibodies, proteins, and inhibitors can fight cancer. Nanoparticles can deliver cancer vaccines, cytokines, and adoptive cell therapies.

• Gene therapy employing DNA and RNA is promising for cancer treatment. The inability to target specific molecules, stability, and permeability plagued this method. Nucleic acid's negative charge attracts water. This simplifies renal elimination and enzyme digestion. Nanotechnology can help solve these problems.

What Are the Various Treatment Modalities in Nanotechnology in Cancer?

Some of the most popular ways to treat cancer right now are chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and a mix of these. These ways, on the other hand, have big problems, such as not being very specific and being harmful. Modern medicine aims to make drugs work better and remove as many side effects as possible. The drug should have a high concentration where the cancer is and a low concentration in other organs. Cancer treatment using nanotechnology could address some of the problems of using traditional methods. Nanotechnology makes it possible to greatly reduce the amount of drugs needed to have a therapeutic effect and increase the quantity of drugs at the cancer site without hurting healthy cells.

• In medicine, nanoparticles are useful because of their special features and ability to hold and move other substances, like probes, proteins, and medicines. Nanoparticles can have a different makeup, like the starting materials, which can be organic lipids, dextran, lactic acid, phospholipids, chitosan, or chemicals like silica, carbon, metals, and different polymers. To find the best ways to diagnose and treat cancer, it is very important to keep the existing literature current, summarize new discussions, and add new ideas. The main goal of this study is to summarize the latest progress in using nanotechnology to diagnose, treat, and find new cancer cases. Problems happening now and what might happen in the future are also discussed, which could help future studies in the field.

• Cancer Nanotechnology in Drug Targeting

1. Drug targeting might be passive or aggressive. Passive targeting uses medicine targeting arteries to multiply quickly, and lymphatic drainage is poor, retaining nanoparticles and submicron particles in tumors. Active targeting targets cell surface receptors with a drug carrier ligand. This aids receptor-mediated endocytosis of drugs in cancers and cells. Cancer and endothelial cells are targeted by active targeting.

2. Nano-discs, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) nanostructures, gold nanoparticles, and viral nanoparticles are some nanoparticle-based drug delivery methods that have shown promise in cancer therapy. Nano-drugs have a lot of promise in cancer therapy because they can protect healthy cells from damage, beat multidrug resistance (MDR), and make anti-cancer drugs more soluble.

3. Nanotechnology-delivered medications aim to improve precision, toxicity, safety, and biocompatibility. Before choosing a drug transport system, examine the drug absorbed and released, how stable and long-lasting the drug and carrier are, how well they interact in the body, and the drug reaction.

• Theragnosis: Theragnosis integrates diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities in one platform with the same dose. The system diagnoses, treats, and evaluates concurrently. Theragnostic nanoparticles biodegrade and are biocompatible; they handle some illnesses. Theragnostic nanoparticles must rapidly and selectively aggregate in target areas, exhibit the disease's structural and biochemical properties, deliver the right amount of drug without affecting healthy organs, and be cleared from the body within hours or biodegrade into a non-toxic byproduct.

1. Theragnosis nanotechnology helps cancer patients and clinicians. Nanotechnology aims to carry radioisotopes, drugs, and genes quickly and selectively without harming the body and track treatment efficacy without invasive procedures.

2. Cancer cell receptor-coupled nanoparticles are targeted. EPR passively removes tumor-collecting theranostic nanoparticles from tumor blood vessels. Create cancer-detecting nanoparticles with anti-cancer drugs with MRI, CT, and PET labeling.

3. Noninvasive imaging can detect cancer early, deliver drugs precisely, and monitor therapy. Studying theranostic nanoparticles for cancer, photothermal, and siRNA/miRNA therapy.

4. Medical practitioners could track tumor growth and give anti-cancer drugs with theranostic nanoparticles. More cancer-detecting nanoparticles will change diagnosis and treatment. Certain theranostic carriers attach to tumor cell overexpressed receptors. Cancer cells are large and immunologically reactive, making antibody infiltration difficult. Peptides are good theranostic carriers because they are smaller and less immunogenic. Permeability must rise for non-targeted theragnostic carriers. Tumor microenvironments with low oxygen and acidic pH support stimulus-based theranostic nanocarriers.

Conclusion

There have been a lot of attempts in the last ten years to find ways to diagnose and treat cancer using nanotechnology. The high sensitivity, specificity, and multiplexed measuring powers of nanotechnology make it very promising for improving cancer diagnosis and therapy, leading to a higher survival rate for cancer patients. Using evaluation and treatment together on a single platform (theragnosis) is one of the biggest benefits. Nano-oncology has completely changed the way it finds and creates drugs and devices that deliver drugs for treating cancer. Despite nanotechnology's many great benefits in cancer treatment, it also has some problems, mainly because it may be harmful, use a lot of resources, and not be reliable or useful in all situations. As a result, ongoing work is needed to fix these problems and use the tool for clinical decision-making.