Advancing Arthritis Therapy: The Frontier of Targeted and Responsive Nanomedicine

Arthritis, a prevalent joint disorder with significant socioeconomic burden, poses considerable therapeutic challenges due to its complex pathophysiology and the limitations of conventional treatments, including systemic toxicity and poor intraarticular retention. Nanomedicine has emerged as a transformative platform to overcome these hurdles, offering precise drug delivery, prolonged retention, and multifunctional therapeutic capabilities. This review systematically summarizes the current landscape and future directions of nanomedicine for arthritis therapy. We first classify and analyze the rational design of four major nanotherapeutic platforms: lipid-based, polymer-based, inorganic, and bioinspired/biomimetic systems. Our discussion highlights their unique mechanisms for targeted delivery, controlled release, and microenvironmental modulation. Subsequently, we elucidate how these engineered nanoplatforms enable multifaceted therapeutic strategies, including immunomodulation, cartilage repair, pannus inhibition, and theranostics. The clinical translation status is critically assessed, acknowledging the promising early-phase validation of candidates like PEGylated liposomes, while also addressing the pivotal translational challenges spanning safety, manufacturing scalability, and biological barriers such as deep tissue penetration and disease heterogeneity. In conclusion, this review underscores the paradigm-shifting potential of nanomedicine in advancing arthritis management from symptomatic relief to disease-modifying interventions and outlines a roadmap for developing next-generation, intelligent nanotherapeutics.