Watkins Rebekah, Wu Ling, Zhang Chenming, Davis Richey M, Xu Bin
Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA ; Program in Nanoscience, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Int J Nanomedicine. 2015 Sep 28;10:6055-74. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S92162. eCollection 2015.
Natural products have been used in medicine for many years. Many top-selling pharmaceuticals are natural compounds or their derivatives. These plant- or microorganism-derived compounds have shown potential as therapeutic agents against cancer, microbial infection, inflammation, and other disease conditions. However, their success in clinical trials has been less impressive, partly due to the compounds' low bioavailability. The incorporation of nanoparticles into a delivery system for natural products would be a major advance in the efforts to increase their therapeutic effects. Recently, advances have been made showing that nanoparticles can significantly increase the bioavailability of natural products both in vitro and in vivo. Nanotechnology has demonstrated its capability to manipulate particles in order to target specific areas of the body and control the release of drugs. Although there are many benefits to applying nanotechnology for better delivery of natural products, it is not without issues. Drug targeting remains a challenge and potential nanoparticle toxicity needs to be further investigated, especially if these systems are to be used to treat chronic human diseases. This review aims to summarize recent progress in several key areas relevant to natural products in nanoparticle delivery systems for biomedical applications.
天然产物用于医学已有多年。许多畅销药物都是天然化合物或其衍生物。这些源自植物或微生物的化合物已显示出作为抗癌、抗微生物感染、抗炎和其他疾病治疗剂的潜力。然而，它们在临床试验中的成功率并不那么令人印象深刻，部分原因是这些化合物的生物利用度较低。将纳米颗粒纳入天然产物的递送系统将是提高其治疗效果的一项重大进展。最近取得的进展表明，纳米颗粒在体外和体内均可显著提高天然产物的生物利用度。纳米技术已证明其操纵颗粒以靶向身体特定区域并控制药物释放的能力。尽管应用纳米技术以更好地递送天然产物有许多益处，但也并非没有问题。药物靶向仍然是一个挑战，潜在的纳米颗粒毒性需要进一步研究，特别是如果这些系统要用于治疗人类慢性疾病。本综述旨在总结纳米颗粒递送系统在生物医学应用中与天然产物相关的几个关键领域的最新进展。
