Abstract

NANO-CARRIERS: AN EMERGING TREND FOR BRAIN TUMOR TREATMENT. A FRONTIER LOOK

Manoj Kumar Katual* and S.L. Harikumar

Abstract

In current scenario, Brain tumors constitute an unsolved clinical problem although significant strides have been made in the treatment of many other cancer types. The incidence of primary brain tumors in the United States has been estimated at approximately 43,800 per year and 18,500 of these are expected to be malignant. Currently brain tumors account for at least 12,690 deaths in the United States yearly. Therapy of brain tumor still remains a challenge despite of recent improvements in surgery and multi adjuvant therapy. Drug therapies of brain tumor have been particularly inefficient, due to the blood-brain barrier and the non-specificity of the potentially toxic drugs. The nano-arriers has emerged as a potential vector for brain delivery, diagnosis & able to overcome the problems of current strategies. Moreover, multi-functionality can be engineered into a single platform so that it can provide tumor specific detection, treatment, and follow-up monitoring. Such multitasking is not possible with conventional technologies. The recent advances in nano-carrier based detection and treatment of brain tumor. The advantages of nano-carriers based delivery and the types of nano-carrier systems under investigation are described, as well as their applications. A broad spectrum of biocompatible nanoparticles, either synthesized or purified from the living body, has been investigated so far. The types of nanoparticles include polymeric, ceramic and metallic matrixes, polymeric micelles, liposomes and dendrimers. For cancer imaging, various types of nanoparticles have been investigated for MRI, optical imaging and ultrasound imaging. Several nanoparticle formulations have been clinically approved for MRI.

Keywords: MRI, Brain delivery, Nanoparticles, Brain cancer, Blood-brain barrier.