NANO-CARRIERS: AN EMERGING TREND FOR BRAIN TUMOR TREATMENT. A FRONTIER LOOK
Manoj Kumar Katual* and S.L. Harikumar
ABSTRACT
In current scenario, Brain tumors constitute an unsolved clinical
problem although significant strides have been made in the treatment
of many other cancer types. The incidence of primary brain tumors in
the United States has been estimated at approximately 43,800 per year
and 18,500 of these are expected to be malignant. Currently brain
tumors account for at least 12,690 deaths in the United States yearly.
Therapy of brain tumor still remains a challenge despite of recent
improvements in surgery and multi adjuvant therapy. Drug therapies of
brain tumor have been particularly inefficient, due to the blood-brain
barrier and the non-specificity of the potentially toxic drugs. The nano-arriers has emerged as
a potential vector for brain delivery, diagnosis & able to overcome the problems of current
strategies. Moreover, multi-functionality can be engineered into a single platform so that it
can provide tumor specific detection, treatment, and follow-up monitoring. Such multitasking
is not possible with conventional technologies. The recent advances in nano-carrier based
detection and treatment of brain tumor. The advantages of nano-carriers based delivery and
the types of nano-carrier systems under investigation are described, as well as their
applications. A broad spectrum of biocompatible nanoparticles, either synthesized or purified
from the living body, has been investigated so far. The types of nanoparticles include
polymeric, ceramic and metallic matrixes, polymeric micelles, liposomes and dendrimers. For
cancer imaging, various types of nanoparticles have been investigated for MRI, optical
imaging and ultrasound imaging. Several nanoparticle formulations have been clinically
approved for MRI.
Keywords: MRI, Brain delivery, Nanoparticles, Brain cancer, Blood-brain barrier.
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