Biologicals to direct nanotherapeutics towards HER2-positive breast cancers

HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive cancer, is treated with combinations of conventional anticancer drugs viz., cytotoxic drugs, nibs, and mAbs. Major limitations associated with this therapy are patient non-compliance due to the adverse drug reactions and rapid development of resistance by the HER2-positive malignant cells. While the former is addressed by the nano-formulations of the anticancer-drugs to some extent, the latter is still at large. This is because the nanocarriers of the anticancer drugs, by and large, lack the target specificity and selectivity. Thus, nowadays, to overcome these problems, various safe and efficacious biological agents are being used to direct the nanotherapeutics towards the HER2-positive breast cancers. The present review describes the potentials of such biological agents. HER2 specific biological agents facilitate surface modification to a variety of nanoparticles for specific delivery and potentiate the synergistic effect of anticancer agents to HER2 overexpressing breast cancer cells. Text in red color represents the various HER2 specific biological agents which can be easily conjugated to the surface of nanotherapeutics by using a suitable linker. [Display omitted] •Emergence of resistance to current therapies by the HER-2 positive breast cancers•Many current nanotherapeutic drugs are devoid of target specificity•Biologicals enhance the target specificity of nanotherapeutic drugs•Ligand coupled with nanotherapeutic drugs identify and kill cancer-specific-cells•Multifunctional nanotherapeutic drugs can attack multiple pathways in cancer cells