Introduction: Proteins and peptides are prominent therapeutic agents, which are effective in number of ailments. Long-term delivery of protein and peptide therapeutics requires polymeric encapsulation to protect from degradation and for its sustained release. However, results from encapsulation of protein macromolecules in dynamic delivery systems report unreliable clinical outcome, indicating ease of degradation, low permeability, and serious immune responses. A specifically targeted delivery system as tumor or cancer theranostics may surpass these limitations. Areas covered: This review covers recent advancements in approaches involving conjugated protein nano-formulations as targeting delivery technology for various ailments encompassing mostly cancer treatment options. Progressions in targeted chemotherapeutics, protein nanoparticles, peptide nanoparticles, lipidation, and antibody drug-conjugates are discussed. Expert opinion: Significant expansions have been made in forming new generation of antitumor-recombinant proteins, which proves a milestone of advancements for more potent and explicit cancer therapies. However, transformation of biologics from laboratory to clinical trials is an immense challenge, because of drop in efficiency of drug-loading, poor reproducibility of nanoparticles, inadequate information regarding long-term toxicity and insufficient pharmacokinetics data. Hence, early stage tumor diagnosis with précised drug delivery to tumor site is crucial for protein- and peptide- based therapeutics for cancer.
Keywords: Protein delivery; antibody drug conjugates; cancer theranostics; chemotherapeutic agents; lipidation and hydrogels; nano-formulation; peptide delivery; peptide nanoparticles; protein nanoparticles.