Nanomaterial-Based Drug Delivery System Targeting Lymph Nodes

Abstract

The lymphatic system plays an indispensable role in humoral balance, lipid metabolism, and immune regulation. The lymph nodes (LNs) are known as the primary sites of tumor metastasis and the metastatic LNs largely affected the prognosis of the patiens. A well-designed lymphatic-targeted system favors disease treatment as well as vaccination efficacy. In recent years, development of nanotechnologies and emerging biomaterials have gained increasing attention in developing lymph-node-targeted drug-delivery systems. By mimicking the endogenous macromolecules or lipid conjugates, lymph-node-targeted nanocarries hold potential for disease diagnosis and tumor therapy. This review gives an introduction to the physiological functions of LNs and the roles of LNs in diseases, followed by a review of typical lymph-node-targeted nanomaterial-based drug-delivery systems (e.g., liposomes, micelles, inorganic nanomaterials, hydrogel, and nanocapsules). Future perspectives and conclusions concerned with lymph-node-targeted drug-delivery systems are also provided.

Hybrid Lymphatic Drug Delivery Vehicles as a New Avenue for Targeted Therapy: Lymphatic Trafficking, Applications, Challenges, and Future Horizons

“…LS-associated diseases such as cancer, organ transplant rejection, infection, inflammation, metabolic disorders, and other diseases pay attention to LDD (Cheng et al 2022 ). The LDD is a potential target for drug delivery and enhancing the bioavailability of oral drug supply by avoiding first-pass metabolism.…”

“…Furthermore, multimodal lymphatic imaging based on nanotechnology provides a complementary means to image lymphoid tissues and quantify their function (Qi et al 2022 ). Therefore, the development of LDDS has gained increasing attention for cancer diagnosis and tumor therapy (Cheng et al 2022 ). The lymphatic imaging modalities detect the staging of cancer lymphatic spread without needless biopsies (Nune et al 2011 ; Chaudhary et al 2014 ).…”

Nanoparticles Targeting Lymph Nodes for Cancer Immunotherapy: Strategies and Influencing Factors

“…[63] Quantum dots, particularly CdSe, ZnO, and ZnS, are a notable subclass of inorganic NPs. [61] On the other hand, organic NPs mainly consist of liposomes, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), solid LNPs, polymeric NPs, nanoemulsions, and micelles. [64] Unlike carbon-based inorganic structures, organic NPs are generally formulated from biocompatible and biodegradable materials like lipids and polymers.…”

“…[ 60 ] The inorganic category encompasses NPs composed of metals and metal oxides, including gold, silver, copper, iron oxide, titanium oxide, aluminum, and alumina. [ 61 ] These inorganic NPs primarily facilitate the delivery of therapeutic agents to specific tumor sites, leveraging afferent lymphatic vessels for transport. [ 62 ] Additionally, carbon‐based structures like fullerene, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, as well as mesoporous silica NPs, are categorized as inorganic.…”

Trends and Advancements in Drug Delivery: What is the "perfect" method of drug delivery?

“…Drug delivery can be sub divided into several different stages: 1) Delivery -formulation Getting the drug(s) into the right formulation so that the right concentration/amount is delivered to the body. This part of Drug Delivery Systems (DDS) development can involve pharmaceutical carriers such as liposomes 1 , nanoparticles 2,3 , or others 4,5 , attachment to specific ligands, or antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs, directed to specific tumor-associated antigens).…”