Khalil Ikramy A, Faheem Ahmed, El-Tanani Mohamed
College of Pharmacy, Ras Al Khaimah Medical and Health Sciences University, Ras Al Khaimah P.O. Box 11172, United Arab Emirates.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt.
Pharmaceutics. 2025 May 15;17(5):651. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics17050651.
The spleen, the largest secondary lymphoid organ, plays several vital roles in the body, including blood filtration, hematopoiesis, and immune regulation. Despite its importance, the spleen has not received substantial attention as a target organ for drug delivery. Most systemically administered colloidal and particulate drug carriers are cleared from the blood by the liver and spleen, making these two organs potential targets for drug accumulation. While various systems have been developed to target the liver, there is an urgent need to design spleen-targeted drug delivery systems that can evade clearance and degradation while delivering drugs efficiently to their target cells in the spleen. Targeting the spleen holds great potential for the treatment of a range of diseases, including blood disorders, immune and inflammatory diseases, infectious diseases, and cancer. It is also crucial for the development of effective vaccines. In this review, we explore different approaches used to target the spleen after systemic administration, and we discuss the factors that shift the biodistribution of drug carriers from the liver to the spleen. We focus on cell-specific delivery within the spleen, strategies to avoid degradation, and methods to achieve the efficient intracellular delivery of various drugs and genes. We also highlight the therapeutic implications of spleen-targeted drug delivery systems, particularly for the prevention and treatment of cancer.
脾脏是最大的次级淋巴器官，在人体中发挥着多种重要作用，包括血液过滤、造血和免疫调节。尽管其很重要，但脾脏作为药物递送的靶器官尚未受到足够的关注。大多数经全身给药的胶体和颗粒药物载体都会被肝脏和脾脏从血液中清除，这使得这两个器官成为药物蓄积的潜在靶标。虽然已经开发了各种靶向肝脏的系统，但迫切需要设计出能够在有效将药物递送至脾脏中的靶细胞的同时，逃避清除和降解的脾脏靶向药物递送系统。靶向脾脏在治疗一系列疾病方面具有巨大潜力，这些疾病包括血液疾病、免疫和炎症性疾病、传染病以及癌症。它对于有效疫苗的开发也至关重要。在这篇综述中，我们探讨了全身给药后用于靶向脾脏的不同方法，并讨论了使药物载体的生物分布从肝脏转向脾脏的因素。我们专注于脾脏内的细胞特异性递送、避免降解的策略以及实现各种药物和基因高效细胞内递送的方法。我们还强调了脾脏靶向药物递送系统的治疗意义，特别是对于癌症的预防和治疗。
