Nano- and Microscale Drug Delivery Approaches for Therapeutic Immunomodulation

Nano- and microparticles have attracted much attention in recent years for the delivery of therapeutic molecules. Even though clinical translation for this kind of formulations has been challenging up to this point, there are some areas in which the potential for further development is immense. One of these key areas is the interaction between nano- and microparticles with the immune system. In this context, different characteristics of these systems can be exploited for immunomodulation. Among these key parameters, we can highlight the possibility of selectively targeting the particles towards specific cell types, as well as their capacity to co-deliver active molecules in a controlled manner. In this way, different therapeutic strategies can be developed for a variety of pathological scenarios, either activating or inhibiting different immune responses. In this review, we provide an overview of the reported approaches based on nano- and microparticles to develop immune-mediated treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, organ transplant and allergy.