Nanomedicine for hepatic fibrosis

Abstract

Hepatic fibrosis is a wound-healing response and commonly proceeded by chronic liver injury. Phenotypic activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) plays a significant role in the progression of hepatic fibrosis; thus, they are the target cells of antifibrotic therapy. Many drugs show promising antifibrotic effects in vitro and in vivo studies, and they often exhibit a poor effect in clinical translation due to an insufficient amount of drug accumulation around the target cells (HSCs, hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, etc.) responsible for hepatic fibrosis. Nanomedicines used as theranostic agents can provide novel therapeutic opportunities to deliver antifibrotic compounds with poor water solubility and bioavailability. In recent years, nanoparticle-based antifibrotic therapy has emerged as one of the strategies to suppress the HSC activation and to resolve hepatic fibrosis. The inorganic and organic nanoparticles laden with poorly soluble herbal and synthetic drugs, siRNA with the decoration of HSC-specific molecules, i.e., retinol or receptors, have been studied as the therapeutic strategies to deliver the drugs precisely into HSCs. This review highlights various nano-based HSC targets used in the treatment of liver fibrosis.