Potential of Lipid Based Nanodrug Carriers for Targeted Treatment of Glioblastoma: Recent Progress and Challenges Ahead

Malignant brain tumor at its fourth stage (glioblastoma) is the most dangerous and an unsolved medical challenge till today. Present therapeutic strategies including chemo treatment, radiation along with surgery all together have not succeeded to control the progression of glioblastoma. Challenges in the early detection, unavailability of specific therapeutic strategy and severe cytotoxicity of available chemotherapeutics are the some of the prime causes of treatment failure. Especially presence of blood-brain barrier (BBB) highly limits pharmacological effect of conventional chemotherapy. In lieu of this, lipid based nanodrug carriers (LNCs) have now been evolved with great potential in improving the drug efficacy for the treatment of glioma. Further, LNCs engineered with specific targeting ligand might significantly reduce the dosage regimen, increase specificity, improve bioavailability and reduce off-target distribution. Such modified LNCs possess sufficient ability to cross BBB to deliver the loaded cargo(s) at target location inside the brain; thereby ensuring improved treatment outcome with less side effects than conventional treatment. This review primarily focuses on recent advancements in various engineered LNCs for the treatment of brain cancer. Also, the existing impediments for nanomedicines associated with their effective large scale synthesis or sufficient clinical application have also been highlighted.