Co-loading Radio-photosensitizer Agents on Polymer and Lipid-based Nanocarriers for Radio-photodynamic Therapy Purposes: Review

Polymer and lipid-based nanocarriers are a state-of-art in nanomedicine and in co-drug delivery of drugs that could merges various diagnostic and treatment modalities such radiotherapy (RT), photodynamic therapy (PDT) and chemotherapy (CT) in cancer therapy. Among various shapes and nanostructures, polymer and lipid-based nanocarriers have the potential to carry two drugs in same time to cells. However, hydrophobic and hydrophilic drug can be loaded in between layers as well as in the core of these nanocarriers, simultaneously. This advantage of NPs can be employed in combination therapy. Radiosensitizer and photosensitizer agents play a critical role in radio-photodynamic therapy (RT-PDT) of cancer. Co-delivery of these agents to cancerous cells is advantageous to cancer therapy but still remain as a challenge of RT-PDT. However, in this review, we have highlighted the challenges of RT-PDT and role of polymer and lipid-based nanocarriers to co-delivery of hydrophobic and hydrophilic agents as radio-photosensitizers. Hence, the different kinds of Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (NPs) have been categorized. Then, the biophysical mechanism of radio-photosensitizer agents with co-loading on polymer and lipid-based nanocarriers in RT-PDT treatment of cancer has been outlined. Finally, attention has been drawn to polymer and lipid-based nanocarriers in co- drugs delivery. Taken together, this work presents the latest updates on this area and highlighted the pros and cons of co-delivery for RT-PDT purposes.