ABSTRACT
Bioceramics such as calcium silicate (Ca-Si), have gained a lot of interest in the biomedical field due to their strength, osteogenesis capability, mechanical stability, and biocompatibility. As such, these materials are excellent candidates to promote bone and tissue regeneration along with treating bone cancer. Bioceramic scaffolds, functionalized with appropriate materials, can achieve desirable photothermal effects, opening up a bifunctional approach to osteosarcoma treatments-simultaneously killing cancerous cells while expediting healthy bone tissue regeneration. At the same time, they can also be used as vehicles and cargo structures to deliver anticancer drugs and molecules in a targeted manner to tumorous tissue. However, the traditional synthesis routes for these bioceramic scaffolds limit the macro-, micro-, and nanostructures necessary for maximal benefits for photothermal therapy and drug delivery. Therefore, a different approach to formulate bioceramic scaffolds has emerged in the form of 3D printing, which offers a sustainable, highly reproducible, and scalable method for the production of valuable biomedical materials. Here, calcium silicate (Ca-Si) is reviewed as a novel 3D printing base material, functionalized with highly photothermal materials for osteosarcoma therapy and drug delivery platforms. Consequently, this review aims to detail advances made towards functionalizing 3D-printed Ca-Si and similar bioceramic scaffold structures as well as their resulting applications for various aspects of tumor therapy, with a focus on the external surface and internal dispersion functionalization of the scaffolds.
ABSTRACT
Cancer is one of the biggest healthcare concerns in our century, a disease whose treatment has become even more difficult following reports of drug-resistant tumors. When this happens, chemotherapy treatments fail or decrease in efficiency, leading to catastrophic consequences to the patient. This discovery, along with the fact that drug resistance limits the efficacy of current treatments, has led to a new wave of discovery for new methods of treatment. The use of nanomedicine has been widely studied in current years as a way to effectively fight drug resistance in cancer. Research in the area of cancer nanotechnology over the past decades has led to tremendous advancement in the synthesis of tailored nanoparticles with targeting ligands that can successfully attach to chemotherapy-resistant cancer by preferentially accumulating within the tumor region through means of active and passive targeting. Consequently, these approaches can reduce the off-target accumulation of their payload and lead to reduced cytotoxicity and better targeting. This review explores some categories of nanocarriers that have been used in the treatment of drug-resistant cancers, including polymeric, viral, lipid-based, metal-based, carbon-based, and magnetic nanocarriers, opening the door for an exciting field of discovery that holds tremendous promise in the treatment of these tumors.