Nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery to high-grade gliomas.

Unlabelled: High grade gliomas (HGGs) are fatal brain tumors due to their infiltration capacity and the presence of resistant cell populations. Further, the brain is naturally protected from many exogenous molecules by the brain blood barrier (BBB), which limits or cancels passage of cytotoxic drugs to the tumor sites. In order to cope with the latter problem, nanoparticle (NP)-based carriers are intensively investigated, due to multiple possibilities to drive them across the BBB to the tumor sites and drop cytotoxic molecules there. The current status of research on NP for drug delivery to HGGs has been analyzed. The results indicate gold, lipids and proteins as three main materials featuring NP formulations for HGG treatment. Albeit specific drug targeting to HGG cells may have not been so far significantly improved, NP may help drugs crossing the BBB and enter the brain thus potentially fixing at least one part of the problem.

From The Clinical Editor: High grade gliomas (HGG) are very aggressive tumours and current therapy remains unsatisfactory. The advance in nanomedicine has allowed the development of novel treatment modalities. In this review article, the authors outlined the current status in using nanoparticle (NP)-based carriers for drug delivery to HGG. This should help readers to understand and develop ideas for further drug carrier designs.