Nanotechnology revolutionizing osteosarcoma treatment: Advances in targeted kinase inhibitors

Abstract Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most frequent primary malignant bone tumor in adolescents and young adults. Despite the advances in therapy, OS remains an ominous problem because of its high metastatic potential, resistance to standard therapy, and great physical, psychological, and financial burden on patients. Available treatment options like surgery and high-dose chemotherapy are limited by high chemotoxicity, multimed resistance, and adverse effects on the quality of life of patients. Extrapolated from the wide array of in vitro and in vivo studies, the application of kinase inhibitors targeting oncogenic signaling pathways, such as insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor, PDGFR, and the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, appears quite promising. However, OS patients are plagued with challenges like poor bioavailability, off-target effects, and resistance mechanisms, which prevent clinical application. This review explores how nanotechnology is beginning to meet these challenges. Liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, and metallic nanoparticles are among the nanoparticles that provide new solutions for the delivery and bioavailability of kinase inhibitors, reducing systemic toxicity and enhancing therapeutic accuracy. Active or passive targeting is enabled by these nanocarriers, which enable the drugs to specifically act on tumor tissues while minimizing the adverse effects on healthy cells. Additionally, diagnostic and therapeutic functionalities are combined into nanotechnology theranostic platforms through nanotechnology that pave the way for personalized medicine approaches. Nanoparticle-based kinase inhibitors have shown efficacy in the preclinical setting to overcome drug resistance, improve tumor targeting, and for sustained release of the drug. These advances have dramatic effects on improving therapeutic outcomes at much less toxicity than currently available treatments. This shows the need for further exploration to bridge these exciting findings to clinical practice. Future studies should seek to optimize nanoparticle design to evade resistance mechanisms, enhance target specificity, and reduce time-dependent toxicity. Further, the incorporation of nanotechnology into a personalized medicine strategy has the possibility of changing how OS is treated and bringing the promise of better patient outcomes and quality of life.