Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 211198, China.
Key Laboratory of Modern Preparation of TCM, Ministry of Education, Jiangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanchang 330004, China.
J Control Release. 2022 Jun;346:260-274. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2022.04.027. Epub 2022 Apr 27.
Growing evidence indicates that hyperinflammatory syndrome and cytokine storm observed in COVID-19 severe cases are narrowly associated with the disease's poor prognosis. Therefore, targeting the inflammatory pathways seems to be a rational therapeutic strategy against COVID-19. Many anti-inflammatory agents have been proposed; however, most of them suffer from poor bioavailability, instability, short half-life, and undesirable biodistribution resulting in off-target effects. From a pharmaceutical standpoint, the implication of COVID-19 inflammation can be exploited as a therapeutic target and/or a targeting strategy against the pandemic. First, the drug delivery systems can be harnessed to improve the properties of anti-inflammatory agents and deliver them safely and efficiently to their therapeutic targets. Second, the drug carriers can be tailored to develop smart delivery systems able to respond to the microenvironmental stimuli to release the anti-COVID-19 therapeutics in a selective and specific manner. More interestingly, some biosystems can simultaneously repress the hyperinflammation due to their inherent anti-inflammatory potency and endow their drug cargo with a selective delivery to the injured sites.
越来越多的证据表明，COVID-19 重症患者中观察到的过度炎症综合征和细胞因子风暴与疾病预后不良密切相关。因此，针对炎症途径似乎是对抗 COVID-19 的合理治疗策略。已经提出了许多抗炎药物；然而，它们大多数存在生物利用度差、不稳定、半衰期短和不理想的生物分布，导致脱靶效应。从制药的角度来看，可以利用 COVID-19 炎症作为治疗靶点和/或针对大流行的靶向策略。首先，可以利用药物传递系统来改善抗炎药物的性质，并将其安全有效地递送到治疗靶点。其次，可以定制药物载体以开发智能传递系统，能够响应微环境刺激以选择性和特异性方式释放抗 COVID-19 疗法。更有趣的是，一些生物系统由于其固有抗炎能力同时抑制过度炎症，并赋予其药物载体选择性递送到受损部位。
