A novel strategy to achieve effective drug delivery: exploit cells as carrier combined with nanoparticles

Abstract

Cell-mediated drug delivery systems employ specific cells as drug vehicles to deliver drugs to targeted sites. Therapeutics or imaging agents are loaded into these cells and then released in diseased sites. These specific cells mainly include red blood cells, leukocytes, stem cells and so on. The cell acts as a Trojan horse to transfer the drug from circulating blood to the diseased tissue. In such a system, these cells keep their original properties, which allow them to mimic the migration behavior of specific cells to carry drug to the targeted site after in vivo administration. This strategy elegantly combines the advantages of both carriers, i.e. the adjustability of nanoparticles (NPs) and the natural functions of active cells, which therefore provides a new perspective to challenge current obstacles in drug delivery. This review will describe a fundamental understanding of these cell-based drug delivery systems, and discuss the great potential of combinational application of cell carrier and NPs.

Engineering Biomimetic Platesomes for pH‐Responsive Drug Delivery and Enhanced Antitumor Activity

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The Dual Role of the Liver in Nanomedicine as an Actor in the Elimination of Nanostructures or a Therapeutic Target

“…In recent years, much attention has been given to alternatives to PEG, i.e., poloxamer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and dextran [47]. Other strategies to prevent MPS engulfment of NPs include (i) the saturation of receptors expressed on Kupffer cells with nontoxic NPs prior to administration of a nanotherapeutic [51]; (ii) the specific transient depletion of macrophages by the injection of dichloromethylene-bisphosphonate-or clodronate-loaded liposomes or substances like gadolinium chloride, methyl palmitate, dextran sulfate, and carrageenan [17,51]; (iii) bio-inspired cell-based approaches which consist in using cells, i.e., red blood cells, platelets, leukocytes, monocytes, and stem cells as drug delivery systems [52,53].…”

Nanozyme applications in biology and medicine: an overview

“…Gold nanoparticles with either positive or negative surface charges surprisingly showed peroxidase mimicking activity [88]. Peroxidase-like activity is used for colorimetric detection of urea, urease and urease inhibitor [89]. Gold nanoparticles based on peroxidase function are used to detect kanamycin residue by catalyzingthe reaction between H 2 O 2 and reduced thionine to produce oxidized thionine [67].…”