title: Nanomedicine delivers promising treatments for rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: An increased understanding in the pathophysiology of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, reveals that the diseased tissue and the increased presence of macrophages and other overexpressed molecules within the tissue can be exploited to enhance the delivery of nanomedicine. Nanomedicine can passively accumulate into chronic inflammatory tissues via the enhanced permeability and retention phenomenon, or be surface conjugated with a ligand to actively bind to receptors overexpressed by cells within chronic inflammatory tissues, leading to increased efficacy and reduced systemic side-effects. This review highlights the research conducted over the past decade on using nanomedicine for potential treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and summarizes some of the major findings and promising opportunities on using nanomedicine to treat this prevalent and chronic disease.
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutics Division, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Leena Kumari
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutics Division, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: O'Mary
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutics Division, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.|Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
authors.forename: Zhengrong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D050997:Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*; D010539:Permeability
keywords: chronic inflammation; enhanced permeability and retention; liposomes; nanomedicine; nanoparticles; rheumatoid arthritis