Nanomaterials for chronic inflammatory diseases: the current status and future prospects

Over the past decades, nanomedicine, the medical application of nanotechnology, has been extensively investigated as a promising approach in treating different inflammatory disorders and conditions. Nanomedicine provides a wide range of engineered nanomaterials, such as polymeric nanoparticles (NPs), lipid-based NPs, liposomes, silica NPs, metallic NPs, etc. Nanomaterial-based drug delivery systems exhibit multiple advantages such as the ability to pass through different physiological barriers within the body and specifically deliver drugs to the required sites without affecting healthy cells and tissues. Enormous amounts of in-vitro and in-vivo researches were previously conducted by many research groups to validate the positive contribution that nanomedicine has regarding the treatment of inflammation and its associated illnesses. The scope of this review paper is to overview the current status of using nanomaterials in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, with an emphasis on asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, gout and atherosclerosis. The future prospects of using nanomaterials for inflammatory diseases were also briefly discussed.