Fig. 7
From: Therapeutic efficacy of nanoparticles and routes of administration
Drug delivery through passive and active targeting. Enhanced vascular permeability is one such hallmark feature of tumor cells along with the defective vascular anatomy. a Passive targeting uses this feature and improves the drug delivery by convection or passive diffusion in tumor cells. b Whereas in active targeting, targeting ligands are over expressed in tumor cells, thus the coveted nanoparticles are engineered to incorporate ligand that will bind to the target cells through ligand receptor interaction. This in turn increase the efficiency of drug delivery to the tumor tissues [Adapted from reference with permission: Wicki A, Witzigmann D, Balasubramanian V, Huwyler J Nanomedicine in cancer therapy: challenges, opportunities, and clinical applications. J Control Release 2015; 200:138–157] [154]