Platinum-based anticancer drugs occupy a crucial role in the treatment of various malignant tumours. However, the efficacy and applicability of platinum drugs are heavily restricted by severe systemic toxicities and drug resistance. Different drug targeting and delivery (DTD) strategies have been developed to prevent the shortcomings of platinum-based chemotherapy. These approaches can be roughly categorized into two groups; namely, active and passive tactics. Active DTD is realized through specific molecular interactions between the drugs and cell or tissue elements, while passive DTD is achieved by exploiting the enhanced permeability and retention effect in tumour tissues. The principal methods for active DTD include conjugation of platinum drugs with selective targeting moieties or encapsulation of platinum drugs in host molecules. Bioactive substances such as hormones, carbohydrates, bisphosphonates, peptides and proteins are commonly used in active DTD. Passive DTD generally involves the fabrication of functionalized polymers or nanoparticles and the subsequent conjugation of platinum drugs with such entities. Polymeric micelles, liposomes, nanotubes and nanoparticles are frequently used in passive DTD. In some cases, both active and passive mechanisms are involved in one DTD system. This review concentrates on various targeting and delivery techniques for improving the efficacy and reducing the side effects of platinum-based anticancer drugs. The content covers most of the related literatures published since 2006. These innovative tactics represent current state-of-the-art developments in platinum-based anticancer drugs.

Apoferritin derived from the native protein ferritin was employed to encapsulate anticancer drugs cisplatin and carboplatin.

Sulfur manifests its influence on platinum anticancer chemotherapy in two aspects: endogenous sulfurcontaining molecules such as cysteine, methionine, glutathione, metallothionein and albumin affect the metabolism of platinum drugs and exert adverse effects on the therapeutic efficacy; exogenous congeners such as amifostine (WR-2721) and dimesna (BNP7787) mitigate the toxic side effects of platinum drugs and serve as chemoprotectants. The platinumsulfur interactions are ubiquitous in the human body and many occurrences encountered during platinum chemotherapy such as uptake, excretion, resistance, and toxicity are related to them. Thus, sulfur-containing molecules play significant roles in the anticancer mechanism of platinum drugs. In this review, the platinum-sulfur interactions are summarized in detail, which may be important for efficient clinical use of the existing platinum agents and beneficial to the rational design of new generation of platinum-based anticancer drugs.