Inorganic nanocarriers for platinum drug delivery

Nowadays platinum drugs take up almost 50% of all the clinically used anticancer drugs. Besides cisplatin, novel platinum agents including sterically hindered platinum (II) drugs, chemically reductive platinum (IV) drugs, photosensitive platinum (IV) drugs, and multinuclear platinum drugs have been developed recently, with a few entering clinic trials. Rapid development of nanobiotechnology makes targeted delivery of anticancer platinum agents to the tumor site possible, while simultaneously minimizing toxicity and maximizing the drug efficacy. Being versatile drug carriers to deliver platinum drugs, inorganic nanovehicles such as gold nanoparticles, iron oxide nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, mesoporous nanosilica, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), have been extensively studied over the past decades. In contrast to conventional polymeric and lipid nanoparticles, inorganic nanoparticles based drug carriers are peculiar as they have shown excellent theranostic effects, revealing themselves an indispensable part of future nanomedicine. Here, we will elaborate recent research advances on fabrication of inorganic nanoparticles for platinum drug delivery.