Therapeutic applications of nanomedicine in autoimmune diseases: from immunosuppression to tolerance induction.

Autoimmune diseases are chronic, destructive diseases that can cause functional disability and multiple organ failure. Despite significant advances in the range of therapeutic agents, especially biologicals, limitations of the routes of administration, requirement for frequent long-term dosing and inadequate targeting options often lead to suboptimal effects, systemic adverse reactions and patient non-compliance. Nanotechnology offers promising strategies to improve and optimize autoimmune disease treatment with the ability to overcome many of the limitations common to the current immunosuppressive and biological therapies. Here we focus on nanomedicine-based delivery strategies of biological immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of autoimmune disorders including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematous, scleroderma, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. This comprehensive review details the concepts and clinical potential of novel nanomedicine approaches for inducing immunosuppression and immunological tolerance in autoimmune diseases in order to modulate aberrant and pathologic immune responses. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: The treatment of autoimmune diseases remains a significant challenge. The authors here provided a comprehensive review, focusing on the current status and potential of nanomedicine-based delivery strategies of immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of autoimmune disorders including psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematous, scleroderma, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes.