Work

From conventional therapy to treatment with lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles for hepatocellular carcinoma

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: With unclear symptoms and ineffective therapies, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the deadliest types of cancer worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies that can overcome the limitations of currently used approaches. Cancer nanotechnology has been contributing to develop new platforms that allow the combination of multiple therapeutic and diagnostic agents, in order to create new, more effective and safer therapeutic approaches, as well as more assertive and precocious diagnoses. In this regard, lipid-polymer hybrid nanosystems have demonstrated to be able to efficiently and specifically deliver different therapeutic agents to target cells. These hybrid formulations bring together, in a single nanosystem, complementary characteristics of polymer-based and lipid-based nanoparticles, namely physical stability, biocompatibility, high drug loading capacity even for drugs with different physicochemical properties, long circulation times, capability of controlled drug release, targeting to specific cells and tissues, and superior in vivo efficacy and efficiency. In this review, we provide an extensive overview of the different types of lipid-polymer hybrid nanosystems and their main individual counterparts, as well as their potential to mediate new therapeutic strategies against HCC. Moreover, we also review the main molecular changes that occur in HCC, the current and the possible future treatment options, and the possible forms of active and passive targeting that could allow lipid-polymer hybrid nanosystems to achieve more effective and specific delivery in HCC, allowing the generation of a platform of knowledge for future treatments with greater efficacy and fewer side effects.

Source: Materials Today Chemistry

DOI: 10.1016/j.mtchem.2025.102870

Authors: Dina Farinha, Ana Bela Sarmento-Ribeiro, Henrique Faneca

Institutions: Centro de Neurociências e Biologia Celular, Centro de Inovação em Biomedicina e Biotecnologia, University of Coimbra, Unidade Local de Saúde de Coimbra, Centro de Investigação em Meio Ambiente Genética e Oncobiologia

Language: English

Topic: Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery

Subfield: Biomaterials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,500