Recent advances in drug delivery and treatment strategies for acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a highly heterogeneous and aggressive hematologic malignancy with a poor prognosis. Although significant advancements have been made in chemotherapeutic regimens, targeted therapies (e.g., FLT3 and BCL2 inhibitors), and immunotherapies such as antibody-drug conjugates and CAR-T cells, treatment outcomes remain unsatisfactory, due to chemoresistance, off-target toxicities, disease relapse, and limited bioavailability. To address these limitations, nanomedicine and drug delivery systems have emerged as a promising approach to enhance therapeutic efficacy and minimizing adverse effects. This review provides a comprehensive overview of current AML treatments, highlighting both achievements and persistent limitations, with a particular focus on gene therapies under investigation. We then delve into various nanocarrier platforms, mainly lipid-based and polymer-based nanoparticles (NPs), examining their potential to overcome existing clinical challenges in AML therapy by improving drug stability, bioavailability, and leukemic cell targeting. Recent innovations in targeted formulations, such as antibody-, peptide-, and nanobody-conjugated drug delivery systems, have been designed to improve AML specificity. Finally, we discuss the key challenges and future directions in AML treatment, emphasizing the need for continued research in biomaterial innovation, formulation optimization, and precision-targeted approaches to enhance patient outcomes.