Engineering nanotheranostic strategies for liver cancer

Figure 3 Enhanced permeability and retention effect favors polymeric micelles as an ideal drug delivery platform. A: Illustration of polymeric micelles with or without galactose for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) targeting; B: Galactose-functionalized micelles bind to galectin-3; C: Specific HCC targeting powered by enhanced permeability and retention. Citation: Ebrahim Attia AB, Oh P, Yang C, Tan JP, Rao N, Hedrick JL, Yang YY, Ge R. Insights into EPR effect vs lectin-mediated targeted delivery: biodegradable polycarbonate micellar nanoparticles with and without galactose surface decoration. Small 2014; 10: 4281-4286. Copyright ^© The Authors 2014. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.