Current trends in the use of human serum albumin for drug delivery in cancer

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Human serum albumin is the most abundant transport protein in plasma, which has recently been extensively utilized to form nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer. The primary reason for selecting albumin protein as drug delivery cargo is its excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and non-immunogenicity. Moreover, the albumin structure containing three homologous domains constituted of a single polypeptide (585 amino acid) incorporates various hydrophobic drugs by non-covalent interactions. Albumin shows active tumor targeting via their interaction with gp60 and SPARC proteins abundant in the tumor-associated endothelial cells and the tumor microenvironment.

Areas covered

The review discusses the importance of albumin as a drug-carrier system, general procedures to prepare albumin NPs, and the current trends in using albumin-based nanomedicines to deliver various chemotherapeutic agents. The various applications of albumin in the nanomedicines, such as NPs surface modifier and fabrication of hybrid/active-tumor targeted NPs, are delineated based on current trends.

Expert opinion

Nanomedicines have the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment. However, clinical translation is limited majorly due to the lack of suitable nanomaterials offering systemic stability, optimum drug encapsulation, tumor-targeted delivery, sustained drug release, and biocompatibility. The potential of albumin could be explored in nanomedicines fabrication for superior treatment outcomes in cancer.

KEYWORDS:

• Albumin
• nanoparticles
• cancer
• chemotherapeutic agents
• targeting
• loading
• conjugation
• anticancer drug

Article highlights

• Albumin is the most abundant transport protein in plasma, with three homologous domains made up of a single polypeptide chain (585 amino acids). It is known for its excellent biocompatibility and non-immunogenicity.

• The albumin NPs provide binding pockets for various hydrophobic drugs and allows their stable encapsulation with high loading ability

• Albumin NPs are commonly fabricated using high-pressure homogenization, microfluidization, desolvation, and self-assembly techniques.

• The nanosize of albumin NPs (~200 nm) allows extravasation in the tumor through endothelial fenestrations (passive targeting)

• Interaction of albumin with gp60 and SPARC proteins allows active targeting of albumin NPs to the tumor and imparts targetability by their surface modification with tumor-homing ligands.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Acknowledgments

S Biswas acknowledges the Department of Science and Technology-Science and Engineering Research Board (DST-SERB), India, for providing research support through the core research grant (Grant no. CRG/2018/001065). M Paul is thankful to ICMR for providing SRF under grant number 45/11/2022/NAN/BMS, and A Mohd Itoo is thankful to Lady Tata Memorial Trust for providing fellowship.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.