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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Pharmacol.

Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1655241

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Glioma Treatment: Novel Drugs, Mechanisms of Resistance, and Therapeutic StrategiesView all 14 articles

Advances and Challenges in Novel Drug Delivery Systems for Glioma Therapy

Provisionally accepted
Peipei  MaPeipei Ma1Yongkang  LiYongkang Li1,2Yingrui  GuYingrui Gu3Hui  ZengHui Zeng4Hongwei  XiangHongwei Xiang1,2Zhenzhen  CaoZhenzhen Cao1,2yankun  Hanyankun Han1,2Yong  CuiYong Cui3*Haixiao  LiuHaixiao Liu1,5*
  • 1Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
  • 2Basic Medical College of The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China
  • 3Department of Neurosurgery, Seventh People's Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
  • 4Department of Neurosurgery, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
  • 5Department of Biomedical Engineering, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Glioma therapy faces substantial challenges primarily due to the restrictive nature of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), limiting effective drug penetration and reducing therapeutic efficacy. Recent advancements in novel drug delivery systems (DDS), including exosome-mediated carriers, drug conjugates, and ultrasound-assisted delivery, have demonstrated promising results in overcoming these limitations. Exosomes offer superior biocompatibility, efficient BBB crossing, and natural cellular targeting capabilities; drug conjugates enable highly selective drug delivery through tumorspecific ligands; and ultrasound-assisted systems transiently disrupt the BBB to permit greater drug entry. Despite encouraging preclinical and early clinical outcomes, significant translational barriers remain. Challenges such as exosome manufacturing scalability, conjugate stability, and immunogenicity, as well as the optimization of ultrasound protocols, must be thoroughly addressed to achieve clinical translation. Overcoming these hurdles requires ongoing multidisciplinary collaboration and rigorous clinical evaluation. Continued progress in refining these innovative DDS approaches holds the potential to markedly improve therapeutic outcomes and patient prognosis in glioma treatment.

Keywords: Glioma, Drug Delivery Systems, Blood-Brain Barrier, Drug conjugates, focused ultrasound

Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Li, Gu, Zeng, Xiang, Cao, Han, Cui and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Yong Cui, Department of Neurosurgery, Seventh People's Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
Haixiao Liu, Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.