R E V I E W Nanoparticles and cancer therapy: A concise review with emphasis on dendrimers Dhruba J Bharali Marianne Khalil Mujgan Gurbuz Tessa M Simone Shaker A Mousa Pharmaceutical Research Institute at Albany College of Pharmacy, Rensselaer, NY, USA Correspondence: Shaker A Mousa Professor of Pharmacology, Executive VP, Chairman of PRI, 1 Discovery Drive, Rensselaer, NY 12144, USA Tel +1 518 694 7397 Fax +1 518 694 7576 Email mousas@acp.edu Abstract: The emergence of nanotechnology has had a profound effect on many areas of healthcare and scientiﬁc research. Having grown exponentially, the focus of nanotechnology has been on engineering diversiﬁed novel applications that even go beyond therapeutic activity; nanotechnology also offers the ability to detect diseases, such as cancer, much earlier than ever imaginable. Often, patients diagnosed with breast, lung, colon, prostate, and ovarian cancer have hidden or overt metastatic colonies. With the advent of diagnostic nanotechnology, these numbers are expected to greatly diminish. This review provides a brief description of nanopar- ticle (liposome, quantum dot, and dendrimer)-mediated cancer therapy in the last decade with an emphasis on the development and use of dendrimers in cancer therapeutics. Keywords: nanoparticles, dendrimer, quantum dots, liposome Introduction Nanoscience is an emerging ﬁeld that deals with interactions between molecules, cells and engineered substances such as molecular fragments, atoms and molecules. In terms of size constraints, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) deﬁnes nanotechnology in dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers (nm),1 but in boarder range it can be extended up to 1000 nm. Particles that fall within this range appear to be optimal for achieving a number of important tasks as nano-carriers, including the alteration of a drug’s reactivity, strength, electrical properties, and ultimately, its behavior in vivo. There is great interest in developing new nanodelivery systems for drugs that are already on the market, especially cancer therapeutics. Ideally, nanodelivery systems will allow for more speciﬁc targeting of the drug, thereby improving efﬁcacy and minimizing side effects. By using nanotechnology in drug design and delivery, researchers are trying to push nanomedicine to be able to deliver the drug to the targeted tissue, release the drug at a controlled rate, be a biodegradable drug delivery system, and to be able to escape from degradation processes of the body. Cancer is a disease that affects millions of Americans in all age groups and both sexes. According to the American Cancer Society, the probability of developing cancer during one’s lifetime is one in two for men and one in three women.2 Most of the current chemotherapeutic agents on the market are low molecular weight agents with high pharmacokinetic volume of distribution both of which contribute to their cytotoxicity. Moreover, the low molecular weight of these chemicals makes them easily excreted, hence a higher concentration is ultimately required, and consequently a higher toxicity is unavoidable. Their low therapeutic index does not contribute favorably to this dilemma, as the needed concentration for the effective treatment must always be reached, but unfortunately the therapeutic levels are often exceeded. Additionally, these drugs when administrated alone, lack speciﬁcity and cause signiﬁcant damage to non- cancerous tissues. This results in serious, unwanted side effects such as bone marrow suppression, hair loss (alopecia), and the sloughing of the gut epithelial cells.3 International Journal of Nanomedicine 2009:4 1–7 © 2009 Bharali et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd.This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. 1