Medical nanoscale materials for virus-induced cervical cancer therapeutic modalities: For targeting delivery

Abstract

Background

Human papillomavirus subtypes 16 and 18-associated cervical cancer is a major global health problem that affects women.

Main body

Conventional treatment approaches, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and gene therapy, are typically vulnerable to systemic harm, cytotoxicity, non-specificity, lack of bioavailability, poor efficacy, poor pharmacokinetics, vaginal mucosal impermeability, slow therapeutic delivery, and adverse reactions. Moreover, conventional therapeutic approaches have problems associated with biocompatibility, stability, dispersion, and the delivery of therapeutic genes into target cells. They also produce modest amounts of long-lasting antitumor immunity and have difficulty successfully targeting and eliminating cancer cells. For this reason, nanoparticles, including polymers like poly-amidoamine and polylactide-co-glycolide dendrimers, aptamers, micelles, lipid-based nanocarriers like liposomes and pegylated lipoplexes, macromolecules, and metallic nanoparticles, including silica, copper oxide, zinc oxide, iron oxide, gold, and silver, are of paramount importance to overcome the numerous drawbacks of carrying and transporting diverse types of HPV-16 and 18-caused cervical cancer therapeutic agents. This review summarizes the application of nanoscale materials to deliver various therapeutic agents to cervical cancer cells.

Conclusions

The use of nanoparticles as medical nanoscale materials during the treatment of cervical cancer helps to improve the efficacy of various therapeutic modalities, speed up the delivery process, and decrease toxicity from drugs.