Exploring near-infrared absorbing nanocarriers to overcome cancer drug resistance

One of the major obstacles of successful cancer therapy is cancer drug resistance. The unique tools and applications developed by nanomedicine provide new approaches to surmount this common limitation of current treatment regimens. Nanocarriers that absorb light in the near-infrared spectrum are particularly suitable for this purpose. These nanocarriers can produce heat, release drugs or stimulate the production of physiologically relevant compounds when illuminated with near-infrared light. The current review summarizes the causes contributing to cancer multidrug resistance. The major types of nanocarriers that have been developed in recent years to overcome these hurdles are described. We focus on nanoparticles that are responsive to near-infrared light and suitable to surmount cancer multidrug resistance. Our review concludes with the bottlenecks that currently restrict the use of nanocarriers in the clinic and an outlook on future directions.