Potential of polymeric nanoparticles in AIDS treatment and prevention.

IMPORTANCE OF THE FIELD: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) remains one of the greatest challenges in public health. The AIDS virus is now responsible for > 2.5 million new infections worldwide each year. Despite significant advances in understanding the mechanism of viral infection and identifying effective treatment approaches, the search for optimum treatment strategies for AIDS remains a major challenge. Recent advances in the field of drug delivery have provided evidence that engineered nanosystems may contribute to the enhancement of current antiretroviral therapy. AREAS COVERED IN THIS REVIEW: This review describes the potential of polymeric nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems in the future treatment of AIDS. Polymeric nanoparticles have been developed to improve physicochemical drug characteristics (by increasing drug solubility and stability), to achieve sustained drug release profile, to provide targeting to the cellular and anatomic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) latent reservoirs and to be applied as an adjuvant in anti-HIV vaccine formulations. WHAT THE READER WILL GAIN: The insight that will be gained is knowledge about the progress in the development of polymeric nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems for antiretroviral drugs as alternative for AIDS treatment and prevention. TAKE HOME MESSAGE: The advances in the field of targeted drug delivery can result in more efficient strategies for AIDS treatment and prevention.