dr. Bart Crielaard: Targeted drug delivery: finding its goal?

Abstract

Targeted drug delivery research aims to develop strategies for directing therapeutic agents specifically to diseased tissues, ideally improving efficacy while reducing side effects. However, despite significant advancements during the last decades, only a limited number of the developed systems have reached a clinical application.

After providing a brief overview regarding the principles of drug targeting, this presentation will illustrate, using several examples of drug delivery strategies in different models of inflammatory diseases, how translational drug targeting may benefit from a disease-oriented approach, to complement the more commonly adopted technology-oriented approach. Finally, the role of macrophages in the pathogenesis of some hematological disorders will be discussed. These diseases, due to the propensity of nano-sized therapies to accumulate in macrophages, may well benefit from a targeted therapy.