STIMULI-RESPONSIVE NANOMATERIALS FOR TARGETED DRUG DELIVERY: LIPOSOMES AND POLYMERIC NANOPARTICLES IN LOCALIZED CANCER THERAPY

Abstract

Conventional chemotherapy suffers from poor specificity, systemic toxicity, and multidrug resistance, limiting its efficacy in cancer treatment. Targeted drug delivery the use of stimuli-responsive nanomaterials provides a promising strategy to enhance the therapeutic index by means of delivering tablets selectively to tumor websites even as diminishing off-target results. This review makes a specialty of two dominant directions of nanocarriers: liposomes and polymeric nanoparticles, which are designed to respond to endogenous stimuli along with pH, redox capacity, enzymes, and hypoxia, and exogenous stimuli such as heat, light, ultrasound, and magnetic fields. The setup ideas, synthesis methods, mechanisms of stimulus-induced launch, preclinical implications, and scientific translation challenges are mentioned. Recent advances in multifunctional structures combining analysis and therapy, termed theragnostic, are also highlighted. Stimuli-responsive nanocarriers show great potential to enhance localized most cancer therapy, although scalability, regulatory hurdles, and tumor heterogeneity remain key constraints.