Dressing multifunctional nanoparticles with natural cell-derived membranes for superior chemotherapy

Nanocarriers are advanced therapeutic vehicles designed to carry therapeutics in a nano-sized core for superior efficacy. Recently, researchers have been attracted to the study of advanced approaches in cancer therapy, such as hybrid phototherapy/chemotherapy, as they can allow diagnosis and treatment in a single modality. Several limitations are associated with conventional cancer treatment approaches; for example, surgical removal carries the risk of off-target tissue damage and bleeding, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy are associated with many adverse side effects leading to low specificity of the therapy for cancer and multidrug resistance. Conventional nanocarriers for cancer therapy have short residence times in systemic circulation and, most importantly, are considered a foreign body by the immune system and are often expelled from systemic circulation even before reaching the target site. These limitations have motivated scientists to overcome the poor targetability and accumulation of chemotherapeutics in the target tissues.