Nanostrategies for Therapeutic and Diagnostic Targeting of Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Receptor

Abstract

Advances in nanomedicine bring the attention of researchers to the molecular targets that can play a major role in the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic modalities for cancer management. The choice of a proper molecular target can decide the efficacy of the treatment and endorse the personalized medicine approach. Gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) is a G-protein-coupled membrane receptor, well known to be overexpressed in numerous malignancies including pancreatic, prostate, breast, lung, colon, cervical, and gastrointestinal cancers. Therefore, many research groups express a deep interest in targeting GRPR with their nanoformulations. A broad spectrum of the GRPR ligands has been described in the literature, which allows tuning of the properties of the final formulation, particularly in the field of the ligand affinity to the receptor and internalization possibilities. Hereby, the recent advances in the field of applications of various nanoplatforms that are able to reach the GRPR-expressing cells are reviewed.