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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 30.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2016 Nov 11;17(1):20–37. doi: 10.1038/nrc.2016.108

Figure 2. The impact of nanoparticle properties on systemic delivery to tumours.

Figure 2

Nanoparticles (NPs) can be made from different materials and have various physicochemical properties (for example, size, geometry, surface features, elasticity and stiffness, among others) and can be modified with a myriad of targeting ligands of different surface density (part a). NP properties affect the biological processes involved in the delivery to tumour tissues, including interactions with serum proteins (part b), blood circulation (part c), biodistribution (part d), extravasation to perivascular tumour microenvironment through the leaky tumour vessels and penetration within the tumour tissue (part e), and tumour cell targeting and intracellular trafficking (part f). NPs can also be designed to control the release profile of payloads (part g). ID, injected dose.