Drug Delivery by Enzyme-Responsive Nanoformulation – Exploring Novel Cancer Treatments

Even though tumor treatment has achieved remarkable successes in recent years, cancer is still one of the severest diseases there is. According to statistics published by the WHO, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Chemotherapy is one of the most widely applied cancer treatment methods since it emerged in the 1940s. Despite of research and development efforts made meanwhile, many compounds used in chemotherapy present major drawbacks. Nanotechnology, as an addon to the anti-cancer drug development, is a promising strategy to cope with certain shortcomings of otherwise encouraging compounds. In this PhD thesis introduction, the reader will be given the understanding, basics and vocabulary to successfully navigate through the publications. At first, the basics of cancer are discussed and points of attack for treatments are described. Then, a short overview will present the development of chemotherapeutics from the beginnings up to nanomedicine.
In our studies, we explored different approaches to developing enzyme-triggered nanoformulations. Our enzyme-responsive formulations were tested in vitro and, to some extent, in vivo.
The conclusion is focused on putting the nanoformulation in context with current progress and presuming opportunities and risks.