Recent advancement in nanomaterial-encapsulated drug delivery vehicles for combating cancer, COVID-19, and HIV-like chronic diseases

Nanotechnology has gained immense attention owing to its multidimensional advantages in the scientific world. Recent progress has confirmed that nanostructured architectures possess promising medicinal applications and have triggered investigation as nanodrug delivery vehicles. These engineered vehicles offer an unprecedented platform for the controlled release of encapsulated drug to targeted site with higher effectuality and reduced toxicity by overcoming the loopholes allied with conventional drug delivery systems. This review provides a systematic overview of specific properties of nanostructured materials, viz., inorganic nanoparticles, polymeric micelles, chitosan, liposomes, dendrimers, carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, and niosomes, and consolidates their therapeutic approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases such as cancer, COVID-19, and HIV/AIDS. Factors including interactions of nanomaterials with physiological environment, mode of drug administration, stability of therapeutic agents, and mechanism of action have been summarized for attaining efficacious drug delivery. In addition to opportunities, the challenges of nanomedicines in drug delivery have also been discussed. In the futuristic perspective, further advancement is necessitated in the domain of nanotechnology mediated advanced drug delivery system by combining newer treatment approaches such as gene therapy and immunotherapy with the existing nanotechnology to improve the performance of drugs and maximize the efficiency of targeted drug distribution.