Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2026
11:18
Direct Drug Delivery to Kidney via the Renal Artery
Published on: April 17, 2021
Advances in the Targeted Drug Delivery System for Renal Fibrosis.
Yan-Yan Zheng1, Ji-Fu Hao1, Jin-Ye Liu1
1School of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Institute of Materia Medica, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, 250117, People's Republic of China.
International Journal of Nanomedicine
|June 26, 2026
Summary
Targeted drug delivery systems (TDDS) show promise for treating renal fibrosis, the main cause of kidney failure. These nanoplatforms overcome delivery barriers, offering new therapeutic strategies for chronic kidney diseases.
Area of Science:
- Nephrology
- Biomedical Engineering
- Drug Delivery Systems
Background:
- Renal fibrosis is the common endpoint for chronic kidney diseases (CKD), leading to end-stage renal disease and significant global health issues.
- Current preclinical treatments for renal fibrosis often fail in clinical applications due to complex biological barriers and ineffective drug delivery.
- Therapeutic challenges include intricate signaling pathways, fibrotic microenvironments, renal structural complexity, and restricted drug access to affected areas.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the signaling pathways involved in renal fibrosis, considering the 'fibrosis niche' concept.
- To critically evaluate existing drug delivery barriers in renal fibrosis therapy.
- To explore emerging targeted drug delivery systems (TDDS) for reversing renal fibrosis and provide future research directions.
Main Methods:
- Summarization of renal fibrosis signaling pathways.
- Critical evaluation of drug delivery challenges in the context of fibrosis.
- Review of nanoplatform-based TDDS, including co-delivery and ligand functionalization.
- Analysis of TDDS targeting key fibrotic effector cells like myofibroblasts and tubular epithelial cells.
Main Results:
- Nanoplatforms enable co-delivery of multiple drugs and targeting ligand functionalization for precise delivery.
- TDDS can target specific cells involved in fibrosis, enhancing therapeutic efficacy.
- Emerging TDDS offer potential solutions to overcome existing drug delivery barriers in renal fibrosis.
Conclusions:
- Targeted drug delivery systems (TDDS) represent a promising strategy to overcome the limitations of current renal fibrosis therapies.
- Nanoplatforms functionalized with targeting ligands are key to achieving effective and localized treatment of kidney fibrosis.
- Further research into TDDS challenges and future directions is crucial for developing novel therapeutic approaches to reverse renal fibrosis and manage CKD.
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