Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jan 14;22(1):47.
doi: 10.1208/s12249-020-01908-5.

Recent Advancement in Nanotechnology-Based Drug Delivery System Against Viral Infections

Affiliations
Review

Recent Advancement in Nanotechnology-Based Drug Delivery System Against Viral Infections

Deepak Pradhan et al. AAPS PharmSciTech. .

Abstract

In the last few decades, the exponential rise in the incidence of viral infections sets a global health emergency across the world. The biomimetic architecture, the ability to hijack host immune responses, continuous antigen shifting, and drafting are the major critical factors that are responsible for the unavailability of a concrete therapeutic regimen against viral infections. Further, inappropriate pharmacodynamic physicochemical and biological parameters such as low aqueous solubility, poor permeability, high affinity for plasm proteins, short biological half-lives, and fast elimination from the systemic circulation are the major critical factors that govern the suboptimal drug concentration at the target site that leads to the development of drug resistance. To address this issue, nanotechnology-based drug delivery approach is emerged as an altering method to attain the optimal drug concentration at the target site for a prolonged period by integrating the nanoengineering tools in the synthesis of nanoparticles. Nanodimensional configuration with enhanced permeability and retention effect, increased surface-area-to-volume ratio, provision for surface functionalization, etc., are the privileged aspects that make it an effective drug delivery system for dispensing the antiviral therapeutics. However, size, shape, charge, and surface topology of nanoparticles are the greater influential factors that determine target-specific drug delivery, optimum cellular uptake, degree of opsonization by the host immune cells, drug retention time, transcytosis, the extension of biological half-life, in vivo stability, and cytotoxicity. The review will enlighten the elaborative role of nanotechnology-based drug delivery and the major challenging aspect of clinical safety and efficacy.

Keywords: antiviral; organic and inorganic nanocarrier system; pharmacokinetics; targeted delivery; therapeutic nanoparticles.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Invasion of the virus into the host cell: The various molecular path such as phagocytosis, micropinocytosis, clathrin, and caveola-mediated opt by the virus to enter into the host cell. The bio mimic characteristic feature of the virus enables them to escape from the endosome by altering pH and host cellular immune responses. b Intracellular transport of NPs: NPs opt for a similar mechanism as processed by viral particles. After successive internalization through multiple channel port, NPs are trafficked in the endolysosomal network within the endosomal vesicles triggered by motor proteins and cytoskeleton components. NPs are decorated with stimuli-responsive polymers that modulate the “proton sponge effect” to escape from the endosomal vesicles and safely deliver to the cytoplasmic compartment. The virucidal activity NPs with the free generation of ROS inhibit the DNA/RNA replication
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Invasion of the virus into the host cell: The various molecular path such as phagocytosis, micropinocytosis, clathrin, and caveola-mediated opt by the virus to enter into the host cell. The bio mimic characteristic feature of the virus enables them to escape from the endosome by altering pH and host cellular immune responses. b Intracellular transport of NPs: NPs opt for a similar mechanism as processed by viral particles. After successive internalization through multiple channel port, NPs are trafficked in the endolysosomal network within the endosomal vesicles triggered by motor proteins and cytoskeleton components. NPs are decorated with stimuli-responsive polymers that modulate the “proton sponge effect” to escape from the endosomal vesicles and safely deliver to the cytoplasmic compartment. The virucidal activity NPs with the free generation of ROS inhibit the DNA/RNA replication
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A schematic diagram elaborate the diversified nanocarrier system in the improvement of physicochemical properties of the antiviral therapeutic agents
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
A diagrammatic overlay on major key challenges in front of nanocarriers/nanoparticles to come out as nanomedicines

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Colson P, Raoult D. Fighting viruses with antibiotics: an overlooked path. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2016;48:349–352. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2016.07.004. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang Y, Xu C, Zhang H, Liu GD, Xue C, Cao Y. Targeting Hemagglutinin: approaches for broad protection against the influenza A virus. Viruses. 2019;11. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schloer S, Goretzko J, Pleschka S, Ludwig S, Rescher U. Combinatory treatment with oseltamivir and itraconazole targeting both virus and host factors in influenza a virus infection. Viruses. 2020;12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tempestilli M, Caputi P, Avataneo V, Notari S, Forini O, Scorzolini L, et al. Pharmacokinetics of remdesivir and GS-441524 in two critically ill patients who recovered from COVID-19. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2020;75:2977–80. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rosenbach KA, Allison R, Nadler JP. Daily dosing of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Clin Infect Dis. 2002;34:686–692. doi: 10.1086/338255. - DOI - PubMed

Substances