Exploring the therapeutic potential of ligand-decorated nanostructured lipid carriers for targeted solid tumor therapy

Solid tumors present significant therapeutic challenges due to their complex pathophysiology, including poor vascularization, dense extracellular matrix, multidrug resistance, and immune evasion. Conventional treatment strategies, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical interventions, are often associated with systemic toxicity, suboptimal drug accumulation at the tumor site, and chemoresistance. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) have emerged as a promising approach to enhance anticancer therapy. NLCs offer several advantages, including high drug loading capacity, improved bioavailability, controlled release, and enhanced stability. Recent advancements in active targeting strategies have led to the development of ligand-decorated NLCs, which exhibit selective tumor targeting, improved cellular uptake, and reduced systemic toxicity. By functionalizing NLCs with different targeting ligands, site-specific drug delivery can be achieved for better therapeutic efficacy. This review comprehensively explores the potential of ligand-decorated NLCs in solid tumor therapy, highlights their design principles, and mechanisms of tumor targeting. Furthermore, it discusses various receptor-targeted NLCs for the effective treatment of solid tumors. The potential of ligand-decorated NLCs in combination therapy, gene therapy, photothermal therapy, and photodynamic therapy is also explored. Overall, ligand-decorated NLCs represent a versatile and effective strategy to achieve better therapeutic outcomes in solid tumor therapy.