Cell-mediated nanoparticle delivery systems: towards precision nanomedicine

Cell-mediated nanoparticle delivery systems (CMNDDs) utilize cells as carriers to deliver the drug-loaded nanoparticles. Unlike the traditional nanoparticle drug delivery approaches, CMNDDs take the advantages of cell characteristics, such as the homing capabilities of stem cells, inflammatory chemotaxis of neutrophils, prolonged blood circulation of red blood cells, and internalization of macrophages. Subsequently, CMNDDs can easily prolong the blood circulation, cross biological barriers, such as the blood-brain barrier and the bone marrow-blood barrier, and rapidly arrive at the diseased areas. Such advantageous properties make CMNDDs promising delivery candidates for precision targeting. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in CMNDDs fabrication and biomedical applications. Specifically, ligand-receptor interactions, non-covalent interactions, covalent interactions, and internalization are commonly applied in constructing CMNDDs in vitro. By hitchhiking cells, such as macrophages, red blood cells, monocytes, neutrophils, and platelets, nanoparticles can be internalized or attached to cells to construct CMNDDs in vivo. Then we highlight the recent application of CMNDDs in treating different diseases, such as cancer, central nervous system disorders, lung diseases, and cardiovascular diseases, with a brief discussion about challenges and future perspectives in the end.