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Antibody-Functionalized Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy

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Handbook of Cancer and Immunology

Abstract

Targeted therapies using nanoparticles have been proposed to address some drawbacks of conventional chemotherapy. In the last two decades, surface modification of nanoparticles with antibody ligands has been extensively explored for the safe and effective delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs. By capitalizing on receptors overexpressed on cancer cells or angiogenic endothelial cells, antibody-functionalized nanoparticles are promising candidates to improve selectivity for target cells and, thus, therapeutic efficacy.

This work offers a brief overview of nanotechnology applied to targeted cancer therapies and highlights the use of antibodies as targeting ligands. After presenting a summary of the most common methods for nanoparticle functionalization with antibodies, the authors discuss different targeting strategies divided into angiogenesis-associated targeting, uncontrolled cell proliferation targeting, and tumor cell targeting. Special emphasis is given to antibody-nanoparticle conjugates that have entered the clinical testing phase. Some explanations for the discrepancy between preclinical and clinical observations are also provided.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financed by national funds from FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the project UIDP/04378/2020 and UIDB/04378/2020 of the Research Unit on Applied Molecular Biosciences - UCIBIO and the project LA/P/0140/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute for Health and Bioeconomy - i4HB. Ana Camila Marques gratefully acknowledges FCT for financial support (grant reference: 2020.06766.BD).

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Correspondence to Ana Camila Marques .

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Marques, A.C., da Costa, P.C., Velho, S., Amaral, M.H. (2023). Antibody-Functionalized Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy. In: Rezaei, N. (eds) Handbook of Cancer and Immunology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80962-1_297-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80962-1_297-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80962-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80962-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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