Enzyme-Responsive Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Disease.

Nanomedicine for cancer therapy seeks to treat malignancies through the selective accumulation of therapeutics in diseased tissue. Nanoparticles offer the convenience of high drug loading capacities and can be readily decorated with targeting moieties, drugs, and/or diagnostics. Our lab has pioneered a new tissue targeting strategy where enhanced accumulation of nanomaterials occurs as a result of morphology changes to the material in response to overexpressed enzymes in diseased tissues. Herein, we describe the general strategy for the preparation of these enzyme-responsive nanoparticles (ER-NPs) for therapeutic applications.