Dan Zhang, Bingtao Zhai, Jing Sun, Jiangxue Cheng, Xiaofei Zhang, Dongyan Guo

State Key Laboratory of Research & Development of Characteristic Qin Medicine Resources (Cultivation), and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Fundamentals and New Drugs Research, and Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xi’an, 712046, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Dongyan Guo, Email 2051080@sntcm.edu.cn

Abstract: Dried toad skin (TS) and toad venom (TV) are the dried skin of the Bufo bufo gargarizans Cantor and the Bufo melanostictus Schneider, which remove the internal organs and the white secretions of the skin and retroauricular glands. Since 2005, cinobufacini preparations have been approved by the State Food and Drug Administration for use as adjuvant therapies in the treatment of various advanced cancers. Meanwhile, bufalenolides has been identified as the main component of TS/TV, exhibiting antitumor activity, inducing apoptosis of cancer cells and inhibiting cancer cell proliferation or metastasis through a variety of signaling pathways. However, clinical agents frequently face limitations such as inherent toxicity at high concentrations and insufficient tumor targeting. Additionally, the development and utilization of these active ingredients are hindered by poor water solubility, low bioavailability, and rapid clearance from the bloodstream. To address these challenges, the design of a targeted drug delivery system (TDDS) aims to enhance drug bioavailability, improve targeting within the body, increase drug efficacy, and reduce adverse reactions. This article reviews the TDDS for TS/TV, and their active components, including passive, active, and stimuli-responsive TDDS, to provide a reference for advancing their clinical development and use.

Keywords: dried toad skin, toad venom, targeted drug delivery system, passive targeted, active targeted, stimuli-responsive targeted