Conclusion and future perspectives

Nano-siRNA drugs have recently been developed as a promising new class of therapeutic agents to treat different types of cancer including pancreatic cancer. RNAi molecules like siRNA are highly effective therapies for cancer depending on their ability to specifically silence cancer-related genes expression or to selectively regulate the pathways involved in the development and progression of malignancy. The development of MDR is the central problem in the pancreatic cancer therapy approaches. As a potential new strategy against pancreatic cancer, the combination of chemotherapy with nano-siRNA drugs represents a revolutionary solution to overcome MDR. Despite these encouraging advances, the toxicity and immune system stimulation, poor knowledge of nano-bio interactions, and limitations considering designing, manufacturing, clinical translation, and commercialization still remained to be addressed. Moreover, to achieve the best synergistic effect of the combination strategy, the encapsulated siRNA and chemotherapy drugs require to be unloaded in cancer cells at two distinct controlled timings. The drug release profiles for the siRNA and anticancer drug will require to be programmed into the chemistry of the delivery system material in such a way that the siRNA molecules will first be released instantly upon internalization into a cell, and after cancer cell sensitization, the anticancer drug will require to be unloaded from the delivery system. Further innovative ideas will require to be designed and optimized to synthesize an innovative in vivo -stable, bio-safe, multi-drug delivery system to overcome the limitations. In recent years, the advent of black phosphorus has proved to be a promising approach for the delivery of gene therapeutics. Hopefully, further studies will be performed to complement the results of this revolutionary research in the near future (Tao et al., 2017).
In summary, nevertheless, the field of nano-siRNA drugs for pancreatic cancer therapy has already come a long way. We believe that nano-siRNA drugs will shift the paradigm of pancreatic cancer therapy and become a reality in the near future.