Nanobots in Lung Cancer Therapy: An Overview

Abstract

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer related death worldwide. It is responsible for roughly 18.4% of all cancer deaths [1]. Late-stage diagnosis, drug resistance and the limitation of getting a therapeutic agent precisely to the lung tumor site continues to be major drawbacks. Nanoparticle based drug delivery has advantages toward solving this problem due to its tiny size, distribution and precise absorption in tumor site. Such tumor targeting improves bioavailability. ‘Nanorobots’ or ‘Nanobots’ are nanoscale devices function on autonomous or semi-autonomous principle and capable of navigating through biological environment to exhibit programmable drug release at the targeted site. This review provides a broad overview of the major classes of nanobots being explored for lung cancer therapy, namely synthetic, biohybrid and DNA origami systems. This piece of the article also attempts to discuss various routes used to administer these nanobots and the mechanisms through which they act on tumors. Their emerging roles in the diagnosis are also considered. Finally, the challenges, limitations and future perspectives were also considered under its purview.