Engineered biomimetic drug-delivery systems for ischemic stroke therapy

Abstract

Ischemic stroke, the most common form of cerebrovascular disease, is a leading cause of death and disability throughout the world. Ischemic injury initiates cascade of pathological events comprising energy dwindling, calcium over accumulation, excitotoxicity, increased oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation and eventually cell death. Although in recent years, biomimetic drug-delivery systems (BDDS) hold exciting potential in modulating ischemic stroke, because of their special properties, including low toxicity and immunogenicity, biodegradability, ability to encapsulate endogenous biologically active molecules and cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB). However, the poor ability in targeting, homing, and/or combination applications of BDDS greatly reduces the therapeutic effect. Using engineering technology, BDDS can obtain active targeting ability to accumulate in specific cell types and tissues or increasing expression of therapeutic factors for enhancing therapeutic efficiency. In this review, we outline the recent progress in exploiting engineered BDDS for ischemic stroke and presented their fabrication processes, unique properties and enhancing treatment efficiency. On this base, the potentials and challenges of engineered BDDS in the treatment of ischemic stroke are revealed, and new thoughts and perspectives are proposed for the design of feasible engineered BDDS for effective treatment of ischemic stroke and other brain diseases.