Magnetosomes: A Tool for Targeted Drug Delivery in the Management of Cancer

Abstract

The last two decades of developments in drug formulations and novel drug delivery systems have been seen as the beginning of a new era leading to increased patient adherence and pharmacological response to the therapeutic regimen. One of the most difficult tasks is efficiency and target-specific drug delivery or the extent of delivery at any given site of interest. Many currently designed drug delivery systems are precisely tailored to maximize the delivery of a particular form of drug by reducing the degradation or loss of the drug. In case of cancer treatment, the targeted drug delivery is of utmost importance as the anticancer agents are not having the ability to differentiate between healthy and tumor cells resulting in adverse effects and/or systemic toxicity. The targeted drug delivery is thus designed to focus on preventing side effects and encouraging the accumulation of the drug at the targeted site; one such promising drug delivery system is magnetosome drug delivery, i.e., drug delivery using magnetosomes (biological magnetic nanoparticles). In this article, we have summarized the system for design, development, and mode of drug delivery using magnetosomes along with the recent developments made in this field to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.