SOMATOSTATIN ANALOGS AS VECTOR MOLECULES FOR TARGETED DELIVERY OF ANTICANCER DRUGS
Targeted delivery of anticancer drugs is a new direction aimed to delivery preparations capable of enhancing selectivity of action of drugs
owing to the use of vector molecules. Targeted drug delivery system is the construction that includes three components: the vector molecule, the
cytotoxic antitumor drug or radionuclide and linker or polymeric nanocarrier for cytotoxic drug. The most promising vectors for the delivery
of targeted drugs are peptide analogs of somatostatin. The somatostatin receptors are the potential targets for antitumor drug delivery because
they are overexpressed in most neuroendocrine and other tumors compared with normal tissues and it is possible to apply somatostatin
analogs as vectors in nanoscale delivery system. Such nanocarriers should combine persistent blood circulating to improve pharmacokinetics
of the loaded agent, for effective tumor cells killing and for selective distribution to the tumor lesion if comparing with healthy tissues. This
review is focused on current strategies used for targeted delivery of anticancer drugs with the use of somatostatin analogs.
Keywords:
somatostatin, somatostatin analogs, octreotide, somatostatin receptors, targeted drug delivery, targeted drugs, antitumor drugs