Engineering Nanomedicines for Improved Melanoma Therapy: Progress and Promises

Abstract

Once metastatic, melanoma remains one of the most aggressive and morbid malignancies. Moreover, in past decades, the overall survival for advanced unresectable melanoma exhibited a constancy of poor prognosis. Low response rates and serious adverse effects have been characteristic of standard therapy based on a combination of chemotherapeutic agents or immunotherapy with IL-2. For example, the chemotherapy including dacarbazine, carmustin, cisplatin and tamoxifen is known as ‘Dartmouth regimen’ while the CVD regimen comprises carmustine, vinblastine and dacarbazine. Thus, there is an urgent and critical need to reformulate these bioactive agents using nanoscience and nanotechnology as alternative strategies. This article overviews current design and evaluation of nanomedicine undertaken to address this unmet medical need. The nanomedicines studied include polymeric nanoparticles, liposomes, polymersomes, dendrimers, cubosomes, niosomes and nanodiamonds. In this preclinical article, nanotechnology provides hope for effective treatment of this aggressive and largely treatment-resistant disease.

Keywords::

• cancer
• engineering
• melanoma
• nanomedicines
• therapy

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was partially supported by the following national awards: New Therapy Grant (the Epilepsy Research Foundation of America), Award number GM 069397–01A2 from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences and Award Number R21AI083092 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases or the NIH of USA. The authors have no other 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 apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Acknowledgements

Helpful discussions and interactions with Thomas Yankee and Fariba Behbod at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Kansas City, KS 66160, USA, were appreciated during this manuscript preparation. The authors acknowledge the helpful and thorough proof reading of this manuscript by Margaret LoGiudice (Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, USA).

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially supported by the following national awards: New Therapy Grant (the Epilepsy Research Foundation of America), Award number GM 069397–01A2 from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences and Award Number R21AI083092 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases or the NIH of USA. The authors have no other 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 apart from those disclosed.