The Potential Role of the Peptide Amphiphiles in Targeted Drug Delivery to Tumors

Background: Targeted drug delivery approaches are intended to increase the effectiveness of drugs by carrying large doses of chemotherapeutic agents to the cancer cells and reduce negative side effects. Self-assembly of peptides can organize molecules into stable and well-defined nanostructures being very attractive for many biomedical applications including drug delivery. Objective: The objective of the current mini-review is to investigate the self-assembly behavior of peptide amphiphiles as nanocarriers under different biological factors in the tumor microenvironment. Method: Data from a range of resources like Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Elsevier, and other valued journals have been reviewed carefully. Results: Structural changes of peptide amphiphiles in response to tumor microenvironment or tumor-specific enzymes are the promising trend, allowing the development of targeted therapy with high efficiency. However, significant improvement in cytotoxicity is achieved when peptide amphiphiles are designed in such a way to respond to multiple stimuli in tumor microenvironments. Conclusion: A multi- disciplinary research area may permit both to reduce the off-target side effects of anticancer drugs and achieve triggered drug delivery at disease sites.