Issue 45, 2021

Virus-inspired nanosystems for drug delivery

Abstract

With over millions of years of evolution, viruses can infect cells efficiently by utilizing their unique structures. Similarly, the drug delivery process is designed to imitate the viral infection stages for maximizing the therapeutic effect. From drug administration to therapeutic effect, nanocarriers must evade the host's immune system, break through multiple barriers, enter the cell, and release their payload by endosomal escape or nuclear targeting. Inspired by the virus infection process, a number of virus-like nanosystems have been designed and constructed for drug delivery. This review aims to present a comprehensive summary of the current understanding of the drug delivery process inspired by the viral infection stages. The most recent construction of virus-inspired nanosystems (VINs) for drug delivery is sorted, emphasizing their novelty and design principles, as well as highlighting the mechanism of these nanosystems for overcoming each biological barrier during drug delivery. A perspective on the VINs for therapeutic applications is provided in the end.

Graphical abstract: Virus-inspired nanosystems for drug delivery

Article information

Article type
Minireview
Submitted
07 sep 2021
Accepted
15 okt 2021
First published
15 okt 2021

Nanoscale, 2021,13, 18912-18924

Virus-inspired nanosystems for drug delivery

Z. Liao, L. Tu, X. Li, X. Liang and S. Huo, Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 18912 DOI: 10.1039/D1NR05872J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements