Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Pharmacol. Jun 9, 2015; 4(2): 172-179
Published online Jun 9, 2015. doi: 10.5497/wjp.v4.i2.172
Lipoprotein based drug delivery: Potential for pediatric cancer applications
Nirupama Sabnis, W Paul Bowman, Andras G Lacko
Nirupama Sabnis, Andras G Lacko, Department of Integrated Physiology and Anatomy, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX 76107, United States
W Paul Bowman, Andras G Lacko, Department of Pediatrics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX 76107, United States
W Paul Bowman, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Fort Worth, TX 76107, United States
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare no conflict of interests, regarding the disclosures in this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Andras G Lacko, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76107, United States. andras.lacko@unthsc.edu
Telephone: +1-817-7352132
Received: September 12, 2014
Peer-review started: September 13, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: December 22, 2014
Accepted: March 4, 2015
Article in press: March 5, 2015
Published online: June 9, 2015
Processing time: 280 Days and 12.4 Hours
Abstract

While survival rates for patients with childhood cancers have substantially improved, the quality of life of the survivors is often adversely impacted by the residual effects of chemo and radiation therapy. Because of the existing metabolic and physiological disparities between pediatric and adult patients, the treatment of pediatric cancer patients poses special challenges to oncologists. While numerous clinical trials being conducted, to improve treatment outcomes for pediatric cancer patients, new approaches are required to increase the efficacy and to minimize the drug related toxic side effects. Nanotechnology is a potentially effective tool to overcome barriers to effective cancer therapeutics including poor bioavailability and non-specific targeting. Among the nano-delivery approaches, lipoprotein based formulations have shown particularly strong promise to improve cancer therapeutics. The present article describes the challenges faced in the treatment of pediatric cancers and reviews the potential of lipoprotein-based therapeutics for these malignancies.

Keywords: Drug delivery; Lipoprotein; Nanoparticles; Pediatric cancers; High density lipoprotein

Core tip: While survival rates for patients with childhood cancers have improved, the quality of life of survivors is often adversely impacted by the residual effects of therapy. Consequently, new approaches will be required to increase the efficacy and to minimize the drug related toxic side effects of pediatric cancer therapy. Nanotechnology is a potentially effective tool to improve cancer chemotherapy via enhanced bioavailability and specific targeting. Lipoprotein based formulations have shown particularly strong promise to improve cancer therapeutics. The present article describes the challenges faced in the treatment of pediatric cancers and reviews the potential of lipoprotein-based therapeutics for these malignancies.