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Folate-conjugated nanoparticles as a potent therapeutic approach in targeted cancer therapy

  • Review
  • Published:
Tumor Biology

Abstract

The selective and efficient drug delivery to tumor cells can remarkably improve different cancer therapeutic approaches. There are several nanoparticles (NPs) which can act as a potent drug carrier for cancer therapy. However, the specific drug delivery to cancer cells is an important issue which should be considered before designing new NPs for in vivo application. It has been shown that cancer cells over-express folate receptor (FR) in order to improve their growth. As normal cells express a significantly lower levels of FR compared to tumor cells, it seems that folate molecules can be used as potent targeting moieties in different nanocarrier-based therapeutic approaches. Moreover, there is evidence which implies folate-conjugated NPs can selectively deliver anti-tumor drugs into cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. In this review, we will discuss about the efficiency of different folate-conjugated NPs in cancer therapy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Behdokht Bahrami

  2. Department of Immunology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran

    Mousa Mohammadnia-Afrouzi

  3. Department of Immunology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Peyman Bakhshaei & Farhad Jadidi-Niaragh

  4. Infectious Diseases Research Center and Laboratory Science Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

    Yaghoub Yazdani

  5. Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran

    Ghasem Ghalamfarsa

  6. Immunology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Mehdi Yousefi & Sanam Sadreddini

  7. Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Mehdi Yousefi

  8. Department of Oncology-Pathology, Immune and Gene Therapy Lab, Cancer Center Karolinska (CCK), Karolinska University Hospital Solna and Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mohammad Hojjat-Farsangi

  9. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

    Mohammad Hojjat-Farsangi

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  1. Behdokht Bahrami
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Correspondence to Farhad Jadidi-Niaragh.

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Bahrami, B., Mohammadnia-Afrouzi, M., Bakhshaei, P. et al. Folate-conjugated nanoparticles as a potent therapeutic approach in targeted cancer therapy. Tumor Biol. 36, 5727–5742 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-3706-6

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