Surface-decoration strategies in nanomedicine for cancer treatment

Abstract Nanotechnology has gained major interest in cancer therapeutics mainly on account of the imploring characteristic properties that nanoparticles exhibit. These include protection against degradation, enhanced penetration, enhanced drug pharmacokinetics, specific targeting, and incorporation of molecules that help in their imaging. Notwithstanding the advantages provided by nanomedicine, the challenges like mononuclear phagocyte system recognition, prolonged circulation time, and surface hydrophobicity should be considered prior to formulating any products. Surface decoration of the nanomedicines with appropriate targeting agents might overcome these limitations to some extent as targeting moieties would expeditiously deliver the active molecules to their specific sites. The active targeting approach, relies on the molecular identification of overexpressed biomarkers that are present on the tumor cells through ligands specific to the targeted receptors. These ligands are conjugated to the surface of the drug delivery vehicle that direct their biodistribution and targeting affinity to the specific site. This chapter mainly focuses on specific ligands of tumor receptors for surface decoration of nanomedicines for targeted drug delivery to cancer cells.