Supramolecular nanostructures for the delivery of peptides in cancer therapy

Supramolecular nanostructured based delivery systems are emerging as a meaningful approach in treatment of cancer, offering controlled drug release and improved therapeutic efficacy. The self-assembled structures can be small molecules, polymers, peptides, proteins, which can be utilized and functionalized to achieve tailored release and target specific cells, tissues, or organs. These structures can improve the solubility and stability of drugs having low aqueous solubility by encapsulating and protecting them from degradation. Alongside, peptides, as natural biomolecules have gained increasing attention as potential candidates in cancer treatment because of their biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity and high specificity towards tumor cells. The amino acid sequences in peptide molecules are tunable, efficiently controlling the morphology of peptide-based self-assembled nanosystems and offering flexibility to form supramolecular nanostructures (SNs). It is evident from the current literature that the SNs of peptide for cancer treatment hold great promise for future cancer therapy, offering potential strategies for personalized medicine with improved patient outcomes. Significance Statement This review focuses on fundamentals and various drug delivery mechanisms based on SNs. Different SNs approaches and recent literature reviews on peptide delivery are also presented to the readers.