Targeted Delivery of Natural Bioactives and Lipid-nanocargos against Signaling Pathways Involved in Skin Cancer

At present, skin cancer is considered a widespread malignancy in human beings. Among diverse population types, Caucasian populations are much more prone to this malignancy in comparison to darker skin populations due to the lack of skin pigmentation. Skin cancer is divided into malignant and non-melanoma skin cancer, which is further categorized as basal and squamous cell carcinoma. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation, chemical carcinogen (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, tar, etc.), and viruses (herpes virus, human papillomavirus, and human T-cell leukemia virus type-1) are major contributing factors to skin cancer. There are distinct pathways available through which skin cancer develops, such as the JAK-STAT pathway, Akt pathway, MAPKs signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, to name a few. Currently, several targeted treatments are available, such as monoclonal antibodies, which have dramatically changed the line of treatment of this disease but possess major therapeutic limitations. Thus, many phytochemicals have been evaluated either alone or in combination with the existing synthetic drugs to overcome their limitations and have been found to play a promising role in the prevention and treatment. In this review, a complete overview of skin cancer, starting from the signaling pathways involved, newer developed drugs with their targets and limitations, along with the emerging role of natural products alone or in combination as potent anticancer agents and their molecular mechanism involved has been discussed. Apart from this, various nano-cargos have also been mentioned here, which can play a significant role in the management and treatment of different types of skin cancer.