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Review
. 2021 Mar 23;10(3):707.
doi: 10.3390/cells10030707.

Immunologically Inert Nanostructures as Selective Therapeutic Tools in Inflammatory Diseases

Laura Talamini  1 , Eiji Matsuura  2 , Luisa De Cola  3   4 , Sylviane Muller  1   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Immunologically Inert Nanostructures as Selective Therapeutic Tools in Inflammatory Diseases

Laura Talamini et al. Cells. .

Abstract

The current therapies based on immunosuppressant or new biologic drugs often show some limitations in term of efficacy and applicability, mainly because of their inadequate targeting and of unwanted adverse reactions they generate. To overcome these inherent problems, in the last decades, innovative nanocarriers have been developed to encapsulate active molecules and offer novel promising strategies to efficiently modulate the immune system. This review provides an overview of how it is possible, exploiting the favorable features of nanocarriers, especially with regard to their immunogenicity, to improve the bioavailability of novel drugs that selectively target immune cells in the context of autoimmune disorders and inflammatory diseases. A focus is made on nanoparticles that selectively target neutrophils in inflammatory pathologies.

Keywords: NETosis; drug targeting; immunomodulation; nanoparticles; neutrophils; therapeutic carriers.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles (NPs), gold NPs, silica NPs and mesoporous silica NPs (MSNs) shown as examples of nanoparticles used for therapeutic purposes [26,27,28,29].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic representation of nanoparticle-based strategies for antigen delivery and tolerance induction by targeting antigen presenting cells (APCs) and by directly targeting T cells.
Figure 3
Figure 3
NETosis, a regulated form of neutrophil cell death that contributes to the host defense against pathogens and is also linked to various inflammatory diseases. The cells shown in this figure are primary human neutrophils exposed to A23187 ionophore and stained for DNA (blue) and extracellular histone H1 (yellow).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Internalization, ex vivo, of P140-encapsulated silica nanocapsules into murine B cells, as followed by confocal microscopy. Fluorescent images were taken 8 h, 16 h, and 24 h after incubation of P140-NPs with B cells extracted from the liver of Murphy Roths large/lymphoproliferative (MRL/lpr) lupus prone mice. Cells were stained with DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) (nuclei, blue), Lysotracker (red) and AF488 P140-nanocapsules (green). Scale bar, 10 μm.
Figure 5
Figure 5
A conceptual representation of an NPs-based theranostic device. NPs carrying an effector molecule such as covalently attached peptide, a small molecule with pharmacological properties, a siRNA presented individually in a single copy or in multiple combinations, can be delivered to selected disease-specific targets. Enhanced or more selective targeting features may be provided using a full antibody or a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) of a specific antibody. Disease condition can be simultaneously monitored by position emission tomography (PET) imaging, for example. For additional details, see [135].
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