Cancer is a globally prevalent cause of premature mortality. Of growing interest is the development of novel anticancer therapies and the optimisation of associated risks. Major issues presently facing conventional anticancer therapies include systemic toxicity, poor solubility, membrane permeability, and multidrug resistance Nanocarriers have been employed to address these issues. Nanocarriers encapsulate anticancer drugs, enabling them to bypass biological barriers and minimise their adverse side effects. These drug delivery systems offer extensive benefits as they can be modified to gravitate towards specific environmental conditions. To further enhance the safety and efficacy of these drug carriers, modern developments have included incorporating a molecular switching mechanism into their structure. These molecular switches are responsive to endogenous and exogenous stimuli and may undergo reversible and repeatable conformational changes when activated. The incorporation of molecular switches can, therefore, impart stimuli-responsive drug-release control on a DDS. These stimuli can then be manipulated to offer precise dosage control over the drug release at a specific target site. This review discusses recent developments in the design of DDSs incorporating light and pH-responsive molecular switches as drug release controllers.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9008311PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.859450DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

molecular switches
12
control drug
8
drug delivery
8
delivery systems
8
anticancer therapies
8
drug release
8
molecular
5
drug
5
molecular switches-tools
4
switches-tools imparting
4

Similar Publications

Background: Huntington disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes psychiatric and neurological symptoms, including involuntary and irregular muscle movements (chorea). Chorea can disrupt activities of daily living, pose safety issues, and may lead to social withdrawal. The vesicular monoamine transporter 2 inhibitors tetrabenazine, deutetrabenazine, and valbenazine are approved treatments that can reduce chorea.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The establishment of protective immune responses relies on the ability of terminally differentiated B cells to secrete a broad variety of antigen-specific antibodies with different effector functions. RIF1 is a multifunctional protein that promotes antibody isotype diversification via its DNA end protection activity during class switch recombination. In this study, we showed that RIF1 ablation resulted in increased plasmablast formation ex vivo and enhanced terminal differentiation into plasma cells upon immunization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Na-concentration dependent conformational switch of oncogene RET G-quadruplex DNA in solution.

Int J Biol Macromol

January 2025

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China. Electronic address:

Proto-oncogene RET is overexpressed in many cancers, and its expression level is positively related to the size and malignancy of the tumors. Effective inhibition of its overexpression can be used to potentially treat cancers. A guanine-rich GC-boxes (I-V) sequence in its promoter region folds into noncanonical G-quadruplex (G4) DNA structures, negatively regulating its expression by interactions with small molecules.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

SMC motor proteins extrude DNA asymmetrically and can switch directions.

Cell

January 2025

Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address:

Structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) complexes organize the genome via DNA loop extrusion. Although some SMCs were reported to do so symmetrically, reeling DNA from both sides into the extruded DNA loop simultaneously, others perform loop extrusion asymmetrically toward one direction only. The mechanism underlying this variability remains unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

LEDGF/p75 promotes transcriptional pausing through preventing SPT5 phosphorylation.

Sci Adv

January 2025

Department of Hematology, Zhongda Hospital, Key Laboratory of Developmental Genes and Human Disease, School of Life Science and Technology, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.

SPT5 exhibits versatile functions in RNA Pol II promoter proximal pausing, pause release, and elongation in metazoans. However, the mechanism underlying the functional switch of SPT5 during early elongation has not been fully understood. Here, we report that the phosphorylation site-rich domain (PRD)/CTR1 and the prion-like domain (PLD)/CTR2, which are situated adjacent to each other within the C-terminal repeat (CTR) in SPT5, play pivotal roles in Pol II pausing and elongation, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!