Table 3.

Application of aptamer-functionalised drug-encapsulated NPs as cancer-targeted therapeutics

Aptamer	Target	Payload	Nanoparticle / carrier	Cancer	Research Group
RNA aptamer	PSMA	Dtxl, DOX, miRNA, CUR, GEM, TMPyP4, PTX	PLA-PEG-COOH NPs, SPION, Atelocollagen Liposomes, PLGA NPs, MSNs, Carbon nanotubes, AuNPs, PLGA-PEG NPs	Prostate cancer, Breast cancer, Liver cancer, Murine cancer, C6 glioma	Farokhzad et al. 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012 112, 113, 126, 133 Wang et al. 2014 134 Lu et al. 2013 123 Kumar et al. 2012, 2013 135-137 Cai et al. 2014 138 Zhang et al. 2014 139 Qu et al. 2012 131, 140 Huang et al. 2014 141 Chen et al. 2011 116
DNA aptamer	MUC1	PTX, Epi, DOX	PLGA NPs, SPION, MSNs	Breast cancer, Colon cancer	Yang et al. 2011 142 Abnous et al. 2013 127 Santos-Oliveira et al. 2013 132
DNA aptamer	CCRF-CEM	DOX	Nanoassembly system, DNA nanotrains	T-cell ALL	Tan et al. 2013 143, 144

ALL: acute lymphoblastic leukemia; AuMP, mesoporous silica-encapsulated Au nanorod; CUR, curcumin; Dtxl, docetaxel; DOX, doxorubicin; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; Epi, Epirubicin; GEM, gemcitabine; MSN, Mesoporous silica nanoparticle; PSMA, prostate-specific membrane antigen; PTX, paclitaxel; SPION, super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle.