Vyas Kunj, Patel Mayur M
Department of Pharmaceutics, Institute of Pharmacy, Nirma University SG Highway, Gujarat 382481, India.
Asian J Pharm Sci. 2023 Mar;18(2):100779. doi: 10.1016/j.ajps.2023.100779. Epub 2023 Jan 29.
Complications of the liver are amongst the world's worst diseases. Liver fibrosis is the first stage of liver problems, while cirrhosis is the last stage, which can lead to death. The creation of effective anti-fibrotic drug delivery methods appears critical due to the liver's metabolic capacity for drugs and the presence of insurmountable physiological impediments in the way of targeting. Recent breakthroughs in anti-fibrotic agents have substantially assisted in fibrosis; nevertheless, the working mechanism of anti-fibrotic medications is not fully understood, and there is a need to design delivery systems that are well-understood and can aid in cirrhosis. Nanotechnology-based delivery systems are regarded to be effective but they have not been adequately researched for liver delivery. As a result, the capability of nanoparticles in hepatic delivery was explored. Another approach is targeted drug delivery, which can considerably improve efficacy if delivery systems are designed to target hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). We have addressed numerous delivery strategies that target HSCs, which can eventually aid in fibrosis. Recently genetics have proved to be useful, and methods for delivering genetic material to the target place have also been investigated where different techniques are depicted. To summarize, this review paper sheds light on the most recent breakthroughs in drug and gene-based nano and targeted delivery systems that have lately shown useful for the treatment of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.
肝脏并发症是世界上最严重的疾病之一。肝纤维化是肝脏问题的第一阶段，而肝硬化是最后阶段，可导致死亡。由于肝脏对药物的代谢能力以及靶向过程中存在难以克服的生理障碍，开发有效的抗纤维化药物递送方法显得至关重要。抗纤维化药物的最新突破在纤维化治疗方面有很大帮助；然而，抗纤维化药物的作用机制尚未完全明确，因此需要设计易于理解且有助于治疗肝硬化的递送系统。基于纳米技术的递送系统被认为是有效的，但在肝脏递送方面尚未得到充分研究。因此，对纳米颗粒在肝脏递送中的能力进行了探索。另一种方法是靶向药物递送，如果将递送系统设计为靶向肝星状细胞（HSCs），则可以显著提高疗效。我们探讨了多种靶向肝星状细胞的递送策略，这些策略最终有助于治疗纤维化。最近，遗传学已被证明是有用的，并且还研究了将遗传物质递送至靶部位的方法，本文对此进行了不同技术的描述。总之，这篇综述文章阐述了基于药物和基因的纳米及靶向递送系统的最新突破，这些突破最近已被证明对肝纤维化和肝硬化的治疗有用。
