Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

Impact of Nanoparticles on Cancer Therapy

Mayson H Alkhatib , Hayat M Albishi, Sawsan H Mahassni

Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Abdulaziz University, PO Box 42801, Jeddah 21551, Saudi Arabia;

For correspondence:- Mayson Alkhatib Email: mhalkhatib@kau.edu.sa Tel:+966599240526

Received: 9 February 2012 Accepted: 1 October 2012 Published: 13 December 2012

Citation: Alkhatib MH, Albishi HM, Mahassni SH. Impact of Nanoparticles on Cancer Therapy. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(6):1001-1011 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i6.18

© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

The tremendous contribution of nanotechnology to the treatment and diagnosis of medical diseases has recently attracted the attention of anticancer researchers. Most of the new nanoparticle carriers have improved drug bioavailability and reduced the cytotoxic effects of the drugs. This article presents an overview of the recent advances of nanotechnology in cancer therapy. It covers the mechanisms of cellular uptake for anticancer drugs delivered in nanoscale systems by either active or passive targeting. The various nanoscale systems employed in drug delivery and their immense potential in diagnosis and imaging of cancerous tumors are also addressed.

Keywords: Nanocarriers, Drug delivery, Liposomes, Micelles, Dendrimers, Emulsification systems