title: Therapeutic applications of nanomedicine in autoimmune diseases: from immunosuppression to tolerance induction.
abstract: Autoimmune diseases are chronic, destructive diseases that can cause functional disability and multiple organ failure. Despite significant advances in the range of therapeutic agents, especially biologicals, limitations of the routes of administration, requirement for frequent long-term dosing and inadequate targeting options often lead to suboptimal effects, systemic adverse reactions and patient non-compliance. Nanotechnology offers promising strategies to improve and optimize autoimmune disease treatment with the ability to overcome many of the limitations common to the current immunosuppressive and biological therapies. Here we focus on nanomedicine-based delivery strategies of biological immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of autoimmune disorders including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematous, scleroderma, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. This comprehensive review details the concepts and clinical potential of novel nanomedicine approaches for inducing immunosuppression and immunological tolerance in autoimmune diseases in order to modulate aberrant and pathologic immune responses.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The treatment of autoimmune diseases remains a significant challenge. The authors here provided a comprehensive review, focusing on the current status and potential of nanomedicine-based delivery strategies of immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of autoimmune disorders including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematous, scleroderma, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Marjan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gharagozloo
authors.affiliation: Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Slawomir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Majewski
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: foldvari@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Foldvari
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D050997:Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Autoimmune diseases; Drug delivery; Immunosuppression; Nanomedicine; Tolerance