Drug Targeting via Platelet Membrane–Coated Nanoparticles

Abstract

Platelets exhibit distinct surface moieties responsible for modulating their adhesion to various disease‐relevant substrates involving vascular damage, immune evasion, and pathogen interactions. Such broad biointerfacing capabilities of platelets have inspired the development of platelet‐mimicking drug carriers that preferentially target drug payloads to disease sites for enhanced therapeutic efficacy. Among these carriers, platelet membrane–coated nanoparticles (denoted “PNPs”) made by cloaking synthetic substrates with the plasma membrane of platelets have emerged recently. Their “top‐down” design combines the functionalities of natural platelet membrane and the engineering flexibility of synthetic nanomaterials, which together create synergy for effective drug delivery and novel therapeutics. Herein, the recent progress of engineering PNPs with different structures for targeted drug delivery is reviewed, focusing on three areas, including targeting injured blood vessels to treat vascular diseases, targeting cancer cells for cancer treatment and detection, and targeting drug‐resistant bacteria to treat infectious diseases. Overall, current studies establish PNPs as versatile nanotherapeutics for drug targeting with strong potentials to improve the treatment of various diseases.

Significantly Improving the Bioefficacy for Rheumatoid Arthritis with Supramolecular Nanoformulations

“…[7,8] Recently there is accumulating research interests focused on treat-to-target approaches against RA, including active interference of IL-1 pathway and other selective strategies. [9][10][11][12][13] Particularly, the treatment of blocking IL-1 is regarded as an effective targeted therapy for IL-1-directed inflammatory diseases, in contrast to attenuated performance of the non-specific antiinflammatory drugs. [13] Although the medication of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL1ra) has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is reported that the protein IL1ra therapeutic and derivatives show short half-life from a few minutes to 1-4 h. [14][15][16] It therefore requires frequent dosage administration as high as 1-2 times per day, which greatly decreases patient compliance and results in higher expenses.…”

Direct Detection of Pulmonary Fibrosis by Near-Infrared-Responsive Biomimetic Platelets

“…18,19 In short, those platelet-mimicking systems are shielded from the body's immune responses and possess platelet-like binding properties by keeping the platelet adhesion molecules, without causing side effects such as blood clotting and inflammation. 20 Thus, devoid of cytokines, biomimetic platelets-derived nanovesicles can provide a collagen-targeting platform without platelets activation and thrombosis. 14,[17][18][19][20] Inspired by these findings, herein we developed a novel imaging modality to detect PF via biomimetic platelets, namely PVD (platelets-derived nanovesicles labeled with dye).…”

Spherical Nucleic Acid Vaccine Structure Markedly Influences Adaptive Immune Responses of Clinically Utilized Prostate Cancer Targets

“…[32] Certain nanostructures are valuable tools for delivering vaccine components and initiating immune responses, as they provide the opportunity to package the immune activator (adjuvant) and target (antigen) with precise structural control over the placement, orientation, and chemical connectivity of each component, resulting in synergistic immune responses. Indeed, such structures advance therapeutic development, as they allow one to both: 1) manipulate and deliver immunologically active components to target sites, [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40] and 2) program the pharmacokinetics and codelivery of these compounds. [41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) are nanoscale architectures particularly well suited for immune modulation due to their modularity, tunability, and facile synthesis from chemical building blocks.…”