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Published on: January 22, 2020
Drug delivery strategies for local immunomodulation in transplantation: Bridging the translational gap
Afsana Naaz1, Heth R Turnquist2, Vijay S Gorantla3
1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, United States; Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, United States.
Abstract:
Drug delivery strategies for local immunomodulation hold tremendous promise compared to current clinical gold-standard systemic immunosuppression as they could improve the benefit to risk ratio of life-saving or life-enhancing transplants. Such strategies have facilitated prolonged graft survival in animal models at lower drug doses while minimizing off-target effects. Despite the promising outcomes in preclinical animal studies, progression of these strategies to clinical trials has faced challenges. A comprehensive understanding of the translational barriers is a critical first step towards clinical validation of effective immunomodulatory drug delivery protocols proven for safety and tolerability in pre-clinical animal models. This review overviews the current state-of-the-art in local immunomodulatory strategies for transplantation and outlines the key challenges hindering their clinical translation.
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