Functional Materials for Subcellular Targeting Strategies in Cancer Therapy: Progress and Prospects

Neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies have made significant progress in cancer treatment. However, tumor adjuvant therapy still faces challenges due to the intrinsic heterogeneity of cancer, genomic instability, and the formation of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Functional materials possess unique biological properties such as long circulation times, tumor-specific targeting, and immunomodulation. The combination of functional materials with natural substances and nanotechnology has led to the development of smart biomaterials with multiple functions, high biocompatibilities, and negligible immunogenicities, which can be used for precise cancer treatment. Recently, subcellular structure-targeting functional materials have received particular attention in various biomedical applications including the diagnosis, sensing, and imaging of tumors and drug delivery. Subcellular organelle-targeting materials can precisely accumulate therapeutic agents in organelles, considerably reduce the threshold dosages of therapeutic agents, and minimize drug-related side effects. This review provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of the research progress in subcellular organelle-targeted cancer therapy based on functional nanomaterials. Moreover, it explains the challenges and prospects of subcellular organelle-targeting functional materials in precision oncology. The review will serve as an excellent cutting-edge guide for researchers in the field of subcellular organelle-targeted cancer therapy. This review investigates eight targeting strategies of functional materials that specifically target subcellular structures in tumor cells, including mitochondria, nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum, lysosome, Golgiosome, cytomembrane, and multi-organelle targeting strategies, and covers a wide range of functional materials, such as liposomes, metal nanoparticles, metal-organic frameworks, dendrimer nanoplatforms, carbon nanotubes, mitochondria-targeting mesoporous silica nanoparticles, carbon QD, amphiphilic copolymers, and small molecular compounds.image