Engineering nanoparticles for targeting rheumatoid arthritis: Past, present, and future trends

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovial joint inflammation and cartilage and bone tissue destruction. Although there exist some treatment strategies for RA, they are not completely safe and effective. Therefore, it is important to develop and test new drugs for RA that specifically target inflamed/swollen joints and simultaneously attenuate other possible damages to healthy tissues. Nanotechnology can be a good alternative to consider when envisioning precise medication for treating RA. Through the use of nanoparticles, it is possible to increase bioavailability and bioactivity of therapeutics and enable selective targeting to damaged joints. Herein, recent studies using nanoparticles for the treatment of RA, namely with liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and metallic nanoparticles, have been reviewed. These therapeutic strategies have shown great promise in improving the treatment over that by traditional drugs. The results of these studies confirm that feasibility of the use of nanoparticles is mainly due to their biocompatibility, low toxicity, controlled release, and selective drug delivery to inflamed tissues in animal RA models. Therefore, it is possible to claim that nanotechnology will, in the near future, play a crucial role in advanced treatments and patient-specific therapies for human diseases such as RA.

Mutual influences of a chemical reaction and thermal radiation on a peristaltic pump of synovial nanofluids in a 3D tapered asymmetric channel

“…During a movement of synovial joints, the synovial fluid reduces the friction between the articular cartilages. Cartilage surfaces in the synovial fluid maintain the pressures up to 200 atm slides on each other with friction measurements in the range 0.0005 to 0.04 and as a natural rule, human bodies do not show signs of wear over the entire life of a healthy individual. In peristaltic, the synovial fluid with the magnetic field influence was introduced by Khan et al Ibrahim et al deliberated the influences of thermal radiation and Joule heating on an MHD peristaltic pump with a synovial nanofluid.…”

The Potential Contribution of Nanoparticles in the Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases

“…Polymeric nanoparticles are made from natural or artificial biodegradable and biocompatible polymers; they represent a promising formulation for drug delivery [17]. They work as carriers to control drug release and target specific locations.…”

“…Liposomes for drug delivery are spherical small-sized vesicles composed of natural or synthetic lipid bilayers, separated by an aqueous medium in their core [1,2,17]. Hydrophilic substances are encapsulated inside the aqueous compartment, while lipophilic substances are adsorbed or incorporated in the lipid bilayers.…”

“…They exhibit remarkable optical and electronic properties, which make them very useful in the medical field [20]. These nanoparticles are ranged in size from 1 to 100 nm, and they can be fabricated and modulated with several functional groups, due to their high surface area to volume ratio that allows them to be conjugated with antibodies, ligands, and vehicles for gene drug delivery and diagnostic imaging [17,19,21]. Moreover, metallic nanoparticles have the potential to carry large doses of drugs and increase their circulatory half-life [19].…”

“…A typical dendrimer is composed of different parts; it is composed of a central core surrounded by repeated units that start from the inside and grow outward like branches with multiple peripheral functional groups [24]. The functional groups have a high degree of molecular uniformity and could be adjusted in size, valency, solubility, and biodegradation [17]. The dendrimers have very high stability and huge surface area, which made them gain a lot of interest and have a wide number of applications in the biomedical field.…”