Molecular approaches for targeted drug delivery towards cancer: A concise review with respect to nanotechnology

Cancer is a leading cause of human death throughout the world. The lack of specificity associated with conventional anti-cancer therapeutics leads to several side effects in addition. Cancer initiation and progression involve complex and multi carcinogenesis processes along with diverse cellular physiological system activities like cell signaling and apoptosis. An erratic microenvironment and drug resistance mechanism of cancer cells further causes failure of the most conventional chemotherapy regimen. Such limitations of the conventional cancer therapy advocate well engineered and smart therapeutics for cancer treatment. An ideal cancer treatment needs a customized and specialized drug delivery technology, which is capable to eradicate even a last cancer cell that may be responsible for the relapse of disease. Targeted nanocarriers (NCs) navigate the loaded therapeutics towards the specific site of action with the reduced adverse effects on the healthy cells. This review presents an overview of various molecular mechanisms and cellular alterations associated with cancer cell development and how targeted formulations can be designed for cancer therapy. A brief focuses on the applications of nanotechnology to exploit these mechanisms and molecular ports for the development of a novel targeted formulation for cancer treatment has also been discussed. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.