Hybrid Vesicular Drug Delivery Systems for Cancer Therapeutics

Abstract Nanoscale vesicles have provided a versatile platform for the transportation of various types of anticancer and diagnostic agents. Vesicular carriers comprised of liposomes, polymersomes, and peptide‐based vesicles have exhibited potential characteristics for nanomedicine developments. However, the represented systems and current therapeutic approaches to cancers are confronted with serious limitations that hinder their clinical translation. The aforementioned limitations could be minimized by implementing combinatorial hybrid systems. With this method, hybrid vesicular systems can integrate the advantages of several carriers into one structure thereby resulting in an increased therapeutic index and better clinical outcome. The current study has reviewed recently introduced types of hybrid vesicles made of polymer–lipids, polymer–peptides, and lipid–peptides, and its main focus is on multiple metallic‐based nanoparticles incorporated into vesicular carriers to provide theranostic platforms and to boost the efficient cytotoxic effects of the delivered agents.