Nanomedicine targeted anti-inflammatory therapy to deal with the ‘crux’ of rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic and complex autoimmune disease that is marked by an inflammatory response, synovial hyperplasia, vascularisation, fascial formation, cartilage and bone destruction, which can lead to joint deformity and even loss of function, ultimately affecting a person’s health and quality of life. Although the pathogenesis of RA is unclear, growing evidence suggests that inflammation-associated cells infiltrate joints, causing tissue damage, inflammation and pain. This disruption in the balance between host tolerance and immune homeostasis the progression of RA. Existing drug therapy and surgical treatments for RA are unable to completely cure the disease or reverse its accelerated progression. Therefore, the design and development of an appropriate and effective drug delivery system will substantially improve the therapeutic effect. In this review, by describing the inflammatory microenvironment of rheumatoid arthritis and the associated inflammatory cells, the progress of targeting strategies and applications of nanotechnology in the disease is summarised, which will be helpful in providing new ideas for the subsequent treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Keywords:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• inflammatory microenvironment
• nanotechnology
• inflammation-associated cells

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China [No. 82260699], the Science and Technology Leading Talents of Ningxia [No. 2022GKLRLX011], Nature Science Foundation of Ningxia [No. 2022AAC02035] and West Light Foundation of The Chinese Academy of Sciences.