Recent advances and futuristic potentials of nano-tailored doxorubicin for prostate cancer therapy

Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent male-specific malignancies globally, with advanced disease stages associated with substantial morbidity and fatality rates. Various techniques, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, prostatectomy etc. are used to treat prostate cancer. Doxorubicin (Dox) has recently piqued the interest of cancer researchers and scientists as an outstanding chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of prostate cancer due to its effective ability to inhibit cancer cell development in various mechanisms. Dox inhibits cancer cell development by inhibiting topoisomerase II and damages cancer cell DNA through the production of a Dox-DNA adduct. However, Dox use has been associated to a number of negative side effects, including cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and other complications. To mitigate the harmful effect of Dox-induced toxicity, contemporary research has shifted its focus to various nanotechnology-based approaches. This present review is based on a variety of nano-formulated Dox for prostate cancer, including Liposomal-Dox, Micellar-Dox, Thermo-Dox, Dendrimer-Dox, Magnetic-Dox etc. Furthermore, the evidence-based mechanistic comparison of nano-conjugated-Dox and free Dox in prostate cancer management has been evaluated. A number of recent global clinical trials (retrieved from US National Library of Medicine database) have revealed the current progress of nano-Dox based therapeutic approaches for prostate cancer treatments and attempted to provide an all-encompassing, interdisciplinary information in this review. Conclusively, the free-Dox in the treatment of prostate cancer found less effective than the nano-conjugated-Dox.