Schematic diagram of nanoparticles, cells carrying nanoparticles, and nanoparticles encapsulated by cell membranes in the site of vascular inflammation. The lower part of the figure is classification of the nanoparticles based on targeting moiety category.

Inflammation is a prevalent pathological process that accompanies the onset and progression of numerous acute and chronic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, pancreatitis, atherosclerosis, ischaemic brain/heart disease and so forth. However, conventional anti-inflammatory drugs have certain disadvantages such as nonspecific tissue distribution, low bioavailability, and a short half-life, resulting in off-target side effects and limited efficacy in disease control. To address these issues, nanoparticles have emerged as a novel therapeutic paradigm in this field to attain inflammation targeting and improve drug pharmacokinetic properties via the well-recognized enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect at the inflammatory site. Existing reviews are predominantly centered on inflammatory pathology introduction and vector design. As a necessary complement, this review mainly elaborates on the introduction of inflammation core events, the history of the drug delivery system for anti-inflammatory drugs, the action mechanism of inflammation targeting vectors, nanoparticle classification based on targeting moiety, methods to combine targeting moiety with core nanoparticles, techniques to assess targetability in vitro and in vivo and finally the challenges and prospects in this field. The information provided herein offers practical guidance to researchers seeking to develop and evaluate inflammation targeting vectors rationally.

Article Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/mba2.65

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