Nanotechnology-based approaches in glioblastoma treatment: How can the dual blood-brain/tumor barriers be overcome?

Abstract

Glioblastoma (GB) is one of the most common and aggressive tumors of the central nervous system, with an annual incidence of 3.2 every 100,000 persons. Successful GB treatment remains challenging despite a tremendous research effort, presenting a high recurrence ratio and a median survival rate of about 15 months after diagnosis. This chapter provides an overall description of the current GB treatments, including a brief description of the classical radio-chemotherapy approaches. The issue of blood-brain barrier translocation, one of the most challenging limitations for pharmacological treatment of brain cancers, is also treated, exploring how nanotechnology can be a real game changer in this area. The main body of the chapter focuses on describing a plethora of nanoformulations (synthetic, biological, and hybrid) as innovative and salient theranostic tools to actively cross the blood-brain and blood tumor barriers, target the GB, and deliver therapeutics. Finally, we draw some considerations on the future of these promising nanotechnology-based therapeutic approaches for the effective treatment of GB.