Engineering nanomedicines for improved melanoma therapy: progress and promises (original) (raw)

Melanoma treatment: from conventional to nanotechnology

Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2018

Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer causing most of the skin cancer-related deaths. The incidence of melanoma has risen so dramatically over past few years that no other solid or blood malignancy comes close to it in terms of increased incidence. The main problem associated with the treatment of melanoma is low response rate to the existing treatment modalities, which in turn is due to the incomplete response by chemotherapeutic agents and inherent resistance of melanoma cells. Conventional therapeutic strategies, as well as, recent literature on melanoma have been thoroughly studied. This review summarizes the base of anti-melanoma treatment with conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, followed by an account of recent studies which explored the potential of nanotechnology and newer strategies and agents in melanoma treatment. Although melanoma is curable if detected in its early localized form, metastatic melanoma continues to be a therapeutic challenge. Metastatic melano...

Advances in nanotechnology-related strategies against melanoma

Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Nanotherapeutics, 2021

Melanoma is a complex and highly aggressive skin tumor with increasing incidence worldwide. In this chapter, this malignant cancer is addressed, gathering information about epidemiology, mitochondrial role in the disease, clinical presentation, and therapeutic management. In the search for novel and more effective therapies against melanoma, pharmacologically active natural products have been explored, with several drugs reaching the market. In vitro and in vivo studies of natural compounds with potential antimelanoma activity are highlighted. Despite their promising potential, some of them can display unfavorable physicochemical and pharmacokinetic features that compromise their clinic translation. Over the last years, there have been advances in nanotechnology applied to cancer treatment that have overcome many of these limitations, providing versatile and effective tools for the successful in vivo delivery of natural molecules, namely lipid-based, polymeric, and metallic nanosystems. These nanocarriers allow not only the modulation of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of the compounds, but also the increase of their stability and circulation time, resulting in greater therapeutic efficacy and less toxicity. Overall, this chapter focuses on nanoformulated natural-based compounds as an alternative therapeutic approach against melanoma, describing the most representative works from 2008 to 2020.

Nanotechnology-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Melanoma Antitumoral Therapy: A Review

BioMed Research International, 2015

Melanoma (MEL) is a less common type of skin cancer, but it is more aggressive with a high mortality rate. The World Cancer Research Fund International (GLOBOCAN 2012) estimates that there were 230,000 new cases of MEL in the world in 2012. Conventional MEL treatment includes surgery and chemotherapy, but many of the chemotherapeutic agents used present undesirable properties. Drug delivery systems are an alternative strategy by which to carry antineoplastic agents. Encapsulated drugs are advantageous due to such properties as high stability, better bioavailability, controlled drug release, a long blood circulation time, selective organ or tissue distribution, a lower total required dose, and minimal toxic side effects. This review of scientific research supports applying a nanotechnology-based drug delivery system for MEL therapy.

Latest News on Nanotechnology for Melanoma Therapy and Diagnosis

2016

Melanoma skin cancer is an aggressive tumour with an increasing incidence. In recent years, the treatment options for the advanced disease have expanded dramatically with the employment of targeted therapy and the immunotherapy. However, the high rate of non-response, the toxicity, and the induced drug resistance remain unmet clinical problems. Scientists are expecting a further advance with the application of nanotechnology in melanoma treatment and diagnosis. In this review, we present an up-date on the latest pre-clinical studies (2015-2016) on nanomedicine with potential use in the clinical management of this disease.

The scope of nanoparticle therapies for future metastatic melanoma treatment

The Lancet Oncology, 2014

Metastatic melanoma is a highly aggressive malignancy that has traditionally been very diffi cult to treat. However, after decades of basic research into the signal transduction pathways that promote cancer cell survival, chemoresistance, growth, and crosstalk with the immune system, targeted therapies have now been developed that off er improved survival for patients with metastatic melanoma. Some of the most promising therapies that have been developed include ipilimumab, an anti-cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 antibody that enhances T-cell activity in the tumour, and selective BRAF inhibitors, such as vemurafenib that blocks tumour cell proliferation in patients with activating BRAF mutations. Although these treatments off er substantial hope for patients, they are not without their drawbacks, which include adverse side-eff ects, drug resistance, and eventual relapse. Nanotherapeutics holds signifi cant promise to circumvent these shortcomings and has the additional advantage of potentially functioning as a diagnostic device. We will discuss the scope of the use of such multimodal nanoparticles for melanoma treatment and ask whether such particles can off er patients with metastatic melanoma improved prognoses for the future.

Biological therapy in the treatment of melanoma

2018

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive tumors and its incidence is on the rise. The low rates of survival in metastatic melanoma has led to the development of new drugs for this type of patient, such as biological therapy which has shown remarkable results. This therapy is based on stimulation of the immune system to fight tumoral cells through: injection of cytokines with immunomodulatory properties (interleukin-2, alphainterferon), vaccination with tumor antigens or immune cells that process tumor antigens, adoptive immunotherapy, inhibition of immune checkpoints (PD-1, CTLA-4), inhibition or stimulation of immune modulator molecules (OX-40, LAG-3), inhibition of signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation (Raf/MAPK/ERK signaling pathway), or administration of oncolytic viruses. Biological therapy in melanoma has shown promise in laboratory and clinical studies, with more therapeutic targets to be revealed as new molecular and cellular mechanisms of the disease are discovered.

Emergent Nanotechnological Strategies for Systemic Chemotherapy against Melanoma

Nanomaterials

Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer, being one of the deadliest cancers in the world. The current treatment options involve surgery, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and the use of chemotherapeutic agents. Although the last approach is the most used, the high toxicity and the lack of efficacy in advanced stages of the disease have demanded the search for novel bioactive molecules and/or efficient drug delivery systems. The current review aims to discuss the most recent advances on the elucidation of potential targets for melanoma treatment, such as aquaporin-3 and tyrosinase. In addition, the role of nanotechnology as a valuable strategy to effectively deliver selective drugs is emphasized, either incorporating/encapsulating synthetic molecules or natural-derived compounds in lipid-based nanosystems such as liposomes. Nanoformulated compounds have been explored for their improved anticancer activity against melanoma and promising results have been obtained. In...

Cutaneous melanoma: available therapy for metastatic disease

Dermatologic Therapy, 2006

Survival of melanoma varies widely by stage, from a potentially highly curable disease when detected in early stages, to a disease with dismal prognosis when it reaches advanced inoperable stages. Stage IV melanoma defines distant metastasis and continues to comprise an ominous prognosis, with a median survival of 6-9 months. Currently, there is no therapeutic agent known to prolong survival in patients with metastatic melanoma. Therapeutic approaches studied in metastatic melanoma include chemotherapy, biochemotherapy, nonspecific immune adjuvants, cancer-specific vaccines, cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, and specific immunostimulants. Chemotherapy with single-agent dacarbazine is the only United States Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA)-approved chemotherapy agent for metastatic melanoma. Immunological approaches have yielded the only newly US-FDA-approved agent for metastatic disease in 30 years, high-dose bolus IL-2, based on durable responses in some patients with metastatic melanoma, but with associated high toxicity rate and cost. A number of novel therapeutic agents are undergoing active clinical investigation.

Nanotechnology Addressing Cutaneous Melanoma: The Italian Landscape

Pharmaceutics

Cutaneous melanoma is one of the most aggressive solid tumors, with a low survival for the metastatic stage. Currently, clinical melanoma treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy. Of note, innovative therapeutic regimens concern the administration of multitarget drugs in tandem, in order to improve therapeutic efficacy. However, also, if this drug combination is clinically relevant, the patient’s response is not yet optimal. In this scenario, nanotechnology-based delivery systems can play a crucial role in the clinical treatment of advanced melanoma. In fact, their nano-features enable targeted drug delivery at a cellular level by overcoming biological barriers. Various nanomedicines have been proposed for the treatment of cutaneous melanoma, and a relevant number of them are undergoing clinical trials. In Italy, researchers are focusing on the pharmaceutical development of nanoformulations for malignant melanoma therapy. The present...

Nanomedicine to modulate immunotherapy in cutaneous melanoma (Review)

Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, 2021

Cancer immunotherapy has shifted the paradigm in cancer treatment in recent years. Immune checkpoint blockage (ICB), the active cancer vaccination and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) for T-cell-based adoptive cell transfer represent the main developments, achieving a surprising increased survival in patients included in clinical trials. In spite of these results, the current state-of-the-art immunotherapy has its limitations in efficacy. The existence of an interdisciplinary interface involving current knowledge in biology, immunology, bioengineering and materials science represents important progress in increasing the effectiveness of immunotherapy in cancer. Cutaneous melanoma remains a difficult cancer to treat, in which immunotherapy is a major therapeutic option. In fact, enhancing immunotherapy is possible using sophisticated biomedical nanotechnology platforms of organic or inorganic materials or engineering various immune cells to enhance the immune system. In addition, biol...