Nanomedicines for intranasal delivery: understanding the nano-bio interactions at the nasal mucus-mucosal barrier

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Intranasal administration is an effective drug delivery routes in modern pharmaceutics. However, unlike other in vivo biological barriers, the nasal mucosal barrier is characterized by high turnover and selective permeability, hindering the diffusion of both particulate drug delivery systems and drug molecules. The in vivo fate of administrated nanomedicines is often significantly affected by nano-biointeractions.

Areas covered

The biological barriers that nanomedicines encounter when administered intranasally are introduced, with a discussion on the factors influencing the interaction between nanomedicines and the mucus layer/mucosal barriers. General design strategies for nanomedicines administered via the nasal route are further proposed. Furthermore, the most common methods to investigate the characteristics and the interactions of nanomedicines when in presence of the mucus layer/mucosal barrier are briefly summarized.

Expert opinion

Detailed investigation of nanomedicine-mucus/mucosal interactions and exploration of their mechanisms provide solutions for designing better intranasal nanomedicines. Designing and applying nanomedicines with mucus interaction properties or non-mucosal interactions should be customized according to the therapeutic need, considering the target of the drug, i.e. brain, lung or nose. Then how to improve the precise targeting efficiency of nanomedicines becomes a difficult task for further research.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Mucus barrier
• nasal mucosa
• intranasal administration
• nanomedicine
• nano-bio interface

Article highlights

• Intranasal administration, an important modern drug delivery method, faces challenges from the nasal mucosa’s unique barriers.

• Discussing the biological barriers and complex structure of nasal mucosa affecting nanomedicines in intranasal administration.

• Discussing the factors affecting nanomedicines interactions with the mucus layer/mucosal barrier and proposing general design strategies for nasal mucosa-targeted nanomedicines.

• Methods to study the bio-interaction between nasal mucus-mucosal barrier and nanomedicines are summarized, including various experimental and computational approaches.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosure

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge BioRender (www.biorender.com) for providing an efficient platform to create the figures.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Jilin Provincial Scientific and Technological Development Program (Grant No. 20210204016YY and Grant No.20200201467JC).