Magic shotgun over magic bullet for treatment of ovarian cancer via polymeric nanoparticles

According to the world cancer research fund international (WCRFI), ovarian cancer is considered the 8th-most prevalent form of cancer in women, with approximately 313,000 new cases recorded in 2020. The high emergence of chemoresistance, recurrence, and harmful side effects imposed by currently existing treatments, viz., chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgical debulking, generates a void for effective therapeutic options. The traditional paradigm of a single target approach, based on Ehrlich's magic bullets, for a disease with multiple complexities has been challenged by the new concept of magic shotguns, which simultaneously alleviates multiple causes and pathways responsible for the disease. The relevance of various natural and synthetic polymeric nanoparticles for the delivery of anti-cancer agent(s) with the capacity to target multiple active receptors can provide an effective therapy coupled with a lower incidence of recurrence. Such systems offer high synergy, low dose dependent side effects, overcome multidrug resistance, and benefit the metastatic stage of ovarian cancer treatment. As a practical matter, it would be advantageous to create a "magic shotgun" that can deliver promiscuous chemotherapeutic agents, encased in polymeric nanoparticles, to multiple targets with significantly improved biopharmaceutical attributes over existing conventional therapy. In this article, we discuss in detail the nanotechnology-based approach to treating ovarian cancer, including the genetic pathways involved and the future prospects of the magic shotgun approach.