Gold Nanoparticles: Construction for Drug Delivery and Application in Cancer Immunotherapy

• Published in: Pharmaceutics Vol. 15; no. 7; p. 1868
• Main Authors: Huang, Huiqun, Liu, Ronghui, Yang, Jie, Dai, Jing, Fan, Shuhao, Pi, Jiang, Wei, Yubo, Guo, Xinrong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.07.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Ablation; Biomass; Biosynthesis; Cancer; cancer immunotherapy; Cancer therapies; Chemical synthesis; drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Drug therapy; Drugs; Gold; gold nanoparticles; Health aspects; Immunotherapy; Ligands; Medical research; Methods; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Optical properties; Particle size; Review; Seeds; Toxicity; Vehicles; gold nanoparticles; cancer immunotherapy; drug delivery
• ISSN: 1999-4923; 1999-4923
• DOI: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15071868

Cancer immunotherapy is an innovative treatment strategy to enhance the ability of the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer cells. However, dose limitations, low response rates, and adverse immune events pose significant challenges. To address these limitations, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been explored as immunotherapeutic drug carriers owing to their stability, surface versatility, and excellent optical properties. This review provides an overview of the advanced synthesis routes for AuNPs and their utilization as drug carriers to improve precision therapies. The review also emphasises various aspects of AuNP-based immunotherapy, including drug loading, targeting strategies, and drug release mechanisms. The application of AuNPs combined with cancer immunotherapy and their therapeutic efficacy are briefly discussed. Overall, we aimed to provide a recent understanding of the advances, challenges, and prospects of AuNPs for anticancer applications.