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The potential of micelleplexes as a therapeutic strategy for osteosarcoma disease

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Abstract

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a rare aggressive bone, presenting low patient survival rate, high metastasis and relapse occurrence, mostly due to multi-drug resistant cells. To surpass that, the use of nanomedicine for the targeted delivery of genetic material, drugs or both have been extensively researched. In this review, we address the current situation of the disorder and some gene therapy options in the nanomedicine field that have been investigated. Among them, polymeric micelles (PM) are an advantageous therapeutic alternative highly explored for OS, as they allow for the targeted transportation of poorly water-soluble drugs to cancer cells. In addition, micelleplexes are PMs with cationic properties with promising features, such as the possibility for a dual therapy, which have made them an attractive research subject. The aim of this review article is to elucidate the application of a micelleplex formulation encapsulating the underexpressed miRNA145 to achieve an active targeting to OS cells and overcome multi-drug resistance, as a new and viable therapeutic strategy.

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Adapted from Santander-Ortega et al. (2006)

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Notes

  1. A chemical law stating that the rate of diffusion observed for a compound in an aqueous solution rises according to the difference in concentration between the two adjoining locations. This difference potentiates the particle movement toward the region with the lowest concentration (Barrera 2005).

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Acknowledgements

The present work was financially supported by National Funds (FCT/MEC, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia/Ministério da Educação e Ciência) through project UID/QUI/50006/2013 and co-financed by the European Union (FEDER under the Partnership Agreement PT2020). Additionally, it was financed by the FCT PTDC/BTM-MAT/30255/2017 grant (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030255) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) as well as the European Community Fund (FEDER) by the COMPETE2020 program.

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Correspondence to Ana Figueiras.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this review.

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Melim, C., Jarak, I., Veiga, F. et al. The potential of micelleplexes as a therapeutic strategy for osteosarcoma disease. 3 Biotech 10, 147 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-2142-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-020-2142-5

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