title: Micro- and nano-carrier systems: The non-invasive and painless local administration strategies for disease therapy in mucosal tissues.
abstract: Mucus is a viscoelastic and adhesive obstacle which protects vaginas, eyes and other mucosal surfaces against foreign pathogens. Numerous diseases that affect the mucosa could be afforded prophylactic and therapeutic treatments with fewer systemic side effects if drugs and genes could be sufficiently delivered to the target mucosal tissues. But drugs and genes are trapped effectively like other pathogens and rapidly removed by mucus clearance mechanism. The emergence of micro- and nano-delivery technologies combined with the realization of non-invasive and painless administration routes brings new hope for the treatment of disease. For retained drugs and genes to mucosal tissues, carriers must increase retention time in the mucus to make full contact with epithelial cells and be transported to target tissues. This review focuses on the current development of micro- and nano-carriers to improve the localized therapeutic efficiency of targeted and sustained drug and gene delivery in mucosal tissues.
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Lei
authors: L
authors: Fang
authors: Department of Radiology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Lingwei
authors: L
authors: Wang
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Yingyi
authors: Y
authors: Yao
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Xiaoli
authors: X
authors: Wu
authors: Department of Radiology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Xue
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Hanjie
authors: H
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Radiology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
authors: Xuening
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China. Electronic address: gongxiaoqun@tju.edu.cn.
authors: Xiaoqun
authors: X
authors: Gong
authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Tianjin Engineering Center of Micro-Nano Biomaterials and Detection-Treatment Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P.R. China. Electronic address: jinchang@tju.edu.cn.
authors: Jin
authors: J
authors: Chang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D006801:Humans; D009092:Mucous Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D009093:Mucus / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Drug and gene delivery; Mucoadhesive nanocarriers; Mucus; Mucus-penetrating particles; Nanoengineered microparticles