Tackling gliomas with nanoformulated antineoplastic drugs: suitability of hyaluronic acid nanoparticles

Excerpt

The development of drug delivery systems able to induce accumulation of a prodrug or its metabolites in aggressive tumours is providing new approaches to achieve enhanced antitumor activity while reducing systemic toxicity. Only recently, the integration of core concepts from the field of biotechnology, nanotechnology and pharmacodynamics provided us with new insights on the possibility to identify anti-neoplastic targets and evaluate the theoretical feasibility of producing drug-incorporated hyaluronic acid (HA)-nanoparticles. Indeed, gliomas could represent the perfect proof of concept for nanoformulated drugs due to the intrinsic characteristics of those tumours: mainly, the high aggressiveness, poor prognosis and high degree of chemo-resistance. A thorough analysis of the current therapeutic armamentarium available for primary brain tumours, and the possible targets of HA-nanoparticles, is perfectly suited to better understand the opportunities provided by such innovative therapeutic approaches and maximize their possible research and clinical values. …