Brief review of therapeutic innovations in the treatment of lung cancer

The discovery of crucial misexpressed genes in lung cancer allows a better understanding about the tumor microenvironment and the biomarkers that are a genetic fingerprint of this cancer. These biomarkers provide relevant knowledge to start the development of targeted therapies, overcoming the side effects and the development of resistances associated with the conventional treatments. Gene therapy and RNAi-based drugs are pointed out as promising and exciting new approaches to treat lung cancer. These therapies may enable more specific and efficient targeted treatments through the delivery of therapeutic genes that are involved in mutated pathways associated to tumorigenesis. The advances made in RNAi-based formulation, in terms of transport and delivery efficiency, have attracted the interest of pharmaceutical companies to use these therapies in the treatment of several types of cancer; some clinical trials to treat lung cancer are already on-going.

Authors and Affiliations:

Mariana Magalhães^1,2, Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo³, Angel Concheiro³, Ana Figueiras^1,2, Ana Cláudia Santos^1,2

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Portugal;

²REQUIMTE/LAQV, Group of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal;

³Departamento de Farmacología, Farmacia y Tecnología Farmacéutica, R+D Pharma Group (GI-1645), Facultad de Farmacia and Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Abstract:

Introduction: Despite the current advances in the discovery of the lung cancer biomarkers and, consequently, in the diagnosis, this pathology continues to be the primary cause of cancer-related death worldwide. In most cases, the illness is diagnosed in an advanced stage, which limits the current treatment options available and reduces the survival rate. Therefore, RNAi-based therapy arises as a promising option to treat lung cancer.

Areas Covered: This review provides an overview on the exploitation of lung cancer biology to develop RNAi-based therapeutics to be applied in the treatment of lung cancer. Furthermore, the review analyses the main nanocarriers designed to deliver RNAi molecules and induce antitumoral effects in lung cancer, and provides updated information about current RNAi-based therapeutics for lung cancer in clinical trials.

Expert opinion: RNAi-based therapy uses nanocarriers to perform a targeted and efficient delivery of therapeutic genes into lung cancer cells, by taking advantage of the known biomarkers in lung cancer. These therapeutic genes are key regulatory molecules of crucial cellular pathways involved in cell proliferation, migration, and apoptosis. Thereby, the characteristics and functionalization of the nanocarrier and the knowledge of lung cancer biology have direct influence in improving the therapeutic effect of this therapy.

Journal: Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery

Link: http://www.uc.pt/ffuc/files/rfigueiras/EODD3