title: Red blood cells: Supercarriers for drugs, biologicals, and nanoparticles and inspiration for advanced delivery systems.
abstract: Red blood cells (RBCs) constitute a unique drug delivery system as a biologic or hybrid carrier capable of greatly enhancing pharmacokinetics, altering pharmacodynamics (for example, by changing margination within the intravascular space), and modulating immune responses to appended cargoes. Strategies for RBC drug delivery systems include internal and surface loading, and the latter can be performed both ex vivo and in vivo. A relatively new avenue for RBC drug delivery is their application as a carrier for nanoparticles. Efforts are also being made to incorporate features of RBCs in nanocarriers to mimic their most useful aspects, such as long circulation and stealth features. RBCs have also recently been explored as carriers for the delivery of antigens for modulation of immune response. Therefore, RBC-based drug delivery systems represent supercarriers for a diverse array of biomedical interventions, and this is reflected by several industrial and academic efforts that are poised to enter the clinical realm.
authors.affiliation: Division of Transfusion Medicine and Therapeutic Pathology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Carlos H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Villa
authors.affiliation: Center for Bioengineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Anselmo
authors.affiliation: Center for Bioengineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Samir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mitragotri
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: muzykant@mail.med.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Muzykantov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D017707:Erythrocyte Transfusion; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Diagnostics; Drug delivery; Erythrocytes; Nanoparticles; Red blood cells