'Smartening' anticancer therapeutic nanosystems using biomolecules

To be effective, anticancer agents must induce cell killing in a selective manner, something that is proving difficult to achieve. Drug delivery systems could help to solve problems associated with the lack of selectivity of classical chemotherapeutic agents. However, to realize this, such systems must overcome multiple physiological barriers. For instance, they must evade surveillance by the immune system, attach selectively to target cells, and gain access to their interior. Furthermore, there they must escape endosomal entrapment, and release their cargoes in a controlled manner, without affecting their functionality. Here we review recent efforts aiming at using biomolecules to confer these abilities to bare nanoparticles, to transform them into smart anticancer therapeutic nanosystems.