Bioinspired and Biomimetic Drug Delivery Strategies to Overcome Resistance in Solid Tumors

Nanotechnology has expanded the therapeutic landscape through controlled release, targeted accumulation, prolonged circulation, and improved therapeutic efficacy while reducing systemic toxicity. However, successful translation requires more than innovative carrier design. Therapeutic systems must navigate physiological barriers, avoid premature clearance, penetrate heterogeneous tumor tissue, interact productively with the tumor microenvironment, and reach resistant cancer-cell populations.Bioinspired platforms offer promising solutions by drawing on natural mechanisms of cell communication, membrane interaction, and cargo transport. Exosomes, extracellular vesicles, and cell-membrane-derived systems may enable more precise delivery of small molecules, nucleic acids, proteins, and immunomodulatory agents. Yet key challenges remain in reproducible production, cargo loading, characterization, safety, scale-up, regulatory readiness, and robust demonstration of therapeutic benefit in relevant models.Despite remarkable advances in cancer therapeutics, achieving efficient, targeted, and safe delivery of therapeutic agents remains a major challenge. Conventional chemotherapy and many emerging biologics continue to face poor biodistribution, systemic toxicity, limited tumor penetration, and therapeutic resistance. These barriers are reinforced by the complex tumor microenvironment, immune evasion, and intratumoral heterogeneity.This Research Topic aims to highlight bioinspired drug-delivery strategies that can overcome these biological barriers and improve treatment outcomes in solid tumors. Particular emphasis will be placed on exosomes, extracellular vesicles, cell-membrane-coated systems, and other biomimetic nanocarriers that can improve therapeutic transport, tumor penetration, and cellular uptake. The collection will connect carrier design with resistance reversal, therapeutic efficacy, manufacturing feasibility, and clinical translation.This Research Topic welcomes articles that advance bioinspired drug delivery for solid tumors. Submissions should address a defined biological barrier or resistance mechanism. Generic nanoparticle synthesis, diagnostic-only theranostics, and broad descriptive accounts of cancer nanomedicine are outside the central scope.Subthemes include, but are not limited to:- Exosomes, extracellular vesicles, and exosome-mimetic systems for cancer therapy- Cell membrane-coated and biomimetic nanocarriers- Bioinspired delivery strategies that overcome resistance mechanisms such as efflux-pump evasion, hypoxia-driven resistance, and stromal barriers- Co-delivery platforms combining anticancer drugs with nucleic acids (siRNA, mRNA) or immunomodulatory agents- Tumor microenvironment-responsive carriers, including pH-, enzyme-, or redox-triggered release- Bioinspired carriers for cancer immunotherapy and rational combination regimens- Cargo-loading and formulation engineering strategies that directly improve resistance reversal and tumor penetration in biomimetic systems- Preclinical models with quantifiable readouts for tumor penetration and resistance reversal- Translational and scale-up challenges specific to overcoming resistance with cell-derived and biomimetic nanocarriers (e.g., reproducibility and batch consistency as they affect therapeutic performance against resistant tumors) Topic editors: Aakash Nathani, Sandeep Padakanti, Dr. Hassan Shah Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84017/bioinspired-and-biomimetic-drug-delivery-strategies-to-overcome-resistance-in-solid-tumors