Chlorotoxin-conjugated nanoparticles for targeted imaging and therapy of glioma.

This review reports the recent advances in chlorotoxin (CTX)-targeted nanoparticles (NPs) for imaging and therapy of glioma. CTX has been identified as a targeting ligand to specifically bind to glioma. Through different conjugation approaches, CTX can be conjugated onto iron oxide NPs, quantum dots, and rare-earth upconversion NPs for targeted magnetic resonance and fluorescence imaging of glioma. Likewise, CTX-conjugated NPs can also be used as a carrier system to load anticancer drugs or therapeutic genes for targeted chemotherapy or gene therapy of glioma, respectively. Some of the key developments in this area of research will be introduced in detail. Challenges and future perspectives in the development of CTX-conjugated NPs will be discussed.