Protein nanoparticles as targeted drug delivery systems, a novel combination of nanotechnology and biology

Abstract

A drug delivery system generally includes the selection and delivery of medicinal and therapeutic compounds to a desired tissue or cell in the body in a targeted manner. to create a successful treatment, it is necessary to maintain the concentration of the drug at the appropriate level in the blood and to release the desired medicinal substances at a certain rate. in recent years, there has been considerable interest in the development of drug delivery systems using nanotechnology. various nanomaterials such as polymers, liposomes, magnetic nanoparticles, and dendrimers can be used as carriers for drug delivery. today, protein nanoparticles are very valuable in drug delivery, which comes of the desirable properties of proteins. Such as the capacity to bind to water molecules, easy control of particle size, less toxicity, stability, and biodegradability. protein nanoparticles can be used together with biodegradable polymers in the structure of microspheres as a targeted drug delivery system. different methods are used to prepare protein nanoparticles, which three different methods include chemical, physical, and self-assembly. All of them lead to the formation of bonds or cross interactions between nanoparticles and drug molecules. Methods: In this review, we studied more than 30 articles from 2000 to 2022 from valid databases. clearly, we describe the protein nanoparticles as novel drug delivery systems and then focus on the different kinds of proteins that can be used as protein nanoparticles. Results: Different proteins are used to produce protein nanoparticles, which include animal and plant proteins. Animal proteins such as elastin, collagen, gelatin, albumin, silk protein, and milk proteins (including casein and whey proteins). Plant proteins include lectin, gliadin, zein, and soy protein. Each has significant advantages. For example, gelatin has an arginine-lysine-glycine sequence in its amino acid sequence, which plays a notable role in cell connections and cell signaling by binding to integrin receptors on the cell surface. Likewise, collagen nanospheres are used as stable excipients for various drugs due to their thermal stability and the ability to form a clear colloidal solution. In addition, caseins are not sensitive to temperature, while whey proteins are significantly denatured at temperatures above 70 degrees. Zein, due to its high hydrophobicity, is used as a drug delivery system for