Macrophages have been extensively used in the development of drug delivery systems, as they can prolong the circulation and release of drugs, extend their half-life, increase their stability and targeting ability, and reduce immunogenicity. Moreover, they have good biocompatibility and degradability and offer abundant surface receptors for targeted delivery of a wide variety of drugs. Macrophage-mediated drug delivery systems can be prepared by loading drugs or drug-loaded nanoparticles into macrophages, macrophage membranes or macrophage-derived vesicles. Although such systems can be used to treat inflammation, cancer, HIV infection and other diseases, they require further research and optimization since they have been assembled from diverse sources and therefore can have quite different physical and chemical properties. Moreover, potential cell-drug interactions can limit their application, and the biological activity of membrane proteins might be lost during membrane extraction and storage. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in this field and discuss the preparation of macrophage-mediated drug delivery systems, their advantages over other delivery systems, their potential applications and future lines of research.

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in the progression of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RGD peptide shows high affinity and selectivity for integrin α_vβ_3, which is one of the most extensively examined target of angiogenesis. Nimesulide could improve the anti-rheumatic profile of methotrexate. But the clinical application was limited due to water-insolubility of both methotrexate and nimesulide and lacking targeting ability. Therefore, this study aimed to design a targeted drug delivery system of micelles mediated by RGD plus the passive targeting of micelles to solve the application problems of methotrexate and nimesulide (M/N), and thus enhance their combined therapeutic effect on RA.

During inflammation, inflammatory cells are rapidly recruited to sites of infection or injury, where they cross physiological barriers around the infected site and further infiltrate into the tissues. Other cells, such as erythrocytes, endothelial cells and stem cells, also play prominent roles in host defense and tissue repair. In recent years, nanotechnology has been exploited to deliver drugs to sites of inflammation. For example, nanoparticles camouflaged with a cell membrane are a novel drug-delivery platform that can interact with the immune system and that show great potential for treating inflammation. Encapsulating drugs inside plasma membranes derived from various cells involved in inflammatory processes can be effective against inflammation. This review describes the preparation, characterization, and properties of various types of cell membrane-camouflaged biomimetic nanoparticles. It also summarizes preclinical research into their efficacy against inflammation.

HKUST-1 represents a promising biomaterial, functioning not only as a drug carrier but also releasing bioactive copper ions, thereby demonstrating exceptional antitumor, antibacterial, and wound healing properties.