Advances of Amifostine in Radiation Protection: Administration and Delivery

Amifostine (AMF, also known as WR-2721) is the only approved broad-spectrum small-molecule radiation protection agent that can combat hematopoietic damage caused by ionizing radiation and is used as an antitumor adjuvant and cell protector in cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Amifostine is usually injected intravenously before chemotherapy or radiotherapy and has been used in the treatment of head and neck cancer. However, the inconvenient intravenous administration and its toxic side effects such as hypotension have severely limited its further application in clinic. In order to reduce the toxic and side effects, scientists are trying to develop a variety of drug administration methods and are devoted to developing a wide application of amifostine in radiation protection. This paper reviews the research progress of amifostine for radiation protection in recent years, discusses its mechanism of action, clinical application, and other aspects, with focus on summarizing the most widely studied amifostine injection administration and drug delivery systems, and explored the correlation between various administrations and drug efficacies.