Use of niosomes for the treatment of intracellular pathogens infecting the lungs

• Published in: Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology 2023-07, Vol.15 (4), p.e1891-n/a
• Main Authors: Bach, Horacio, Lorenzo‐Leal, Ana C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biology; Drug delivery; Drug Delivery Systems; Drugs; Immune clearance; Immune response; Immune system; Immunology; Immunosuppressive agents; Intracellular; intracellular pathogens; Leukocytes; Liposomes; Lung; lung infection; Lungs; Macrophages; Mammals; mycobacteria; nanocarriers; Nanomedicine; Nanotechnology; niosomes; Pathogens
• ISSN: 1939-5116; 1939-0041
• DOI: 10.1002/wnan.1891

The delivery of drugs in an encapsulated environment is designed to precisely target specific tissues, avoiding a systemic circulation of the drug. Lungs are organs exposed to the environment with multiple defense barriers. However, many pathogens can still colonize and infect the airways bypassing the hostile environment of the lungs. In more complicated situations, some pathogens have developed strategies to multiply and survive within macrophages, one of the first immune cell responses to clearing infections in mammals. Niosomes are artificial vesicles that can be loaded with drugs, offering an alternative strategy to treat intracellular pathogens as nanocarriers. Members of the mycobacteria genus are intracellular pathogens that have evolved to escape the immunological response, specifically in macrophages, the white cells responsible for the clearance of pathogens. This review analyzed the state‐of‐the‐art niosome synthesis aimed at tackling the problem of intracellular pathogen therapy. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Infectious Disease Nanotechnology Approaches to Biology > Nanoscale Systems in Biology Macrophage–niosome fusion. The composition of the bilayers of the niosome allows a fast fusion with the macrophage membrane cells. The antibiotics loaded in the niosomes (red triangles) are released into the macrophage upon fusion. Created using BioRender.com (2022, https://app.biorender.com).