Red blood cells-derived components as biomimetic functional materials: Matching versatile delivery strategies based on structure and function.

Abstract

Red blood cells (RBCs), often referred to as "intelligent delivery systems", can serve as biological or hybrid drug carriers due to their inherent advantages and characteristics. This innovative approach has the potential to enhance biocompatibility, pharmacokinetics, and provide targeting properties for drugs. By leveraging the unique structure and contents of RBCs, drug-loading pathways can be meticulously designed to align with these distinctive features. This review article primarily discusses the drug delivery strategies and their applications that are informed by the structural and functional properties of the main components of RBCs, including living RBCs, membranes, hollow RBCs, and hemoglobin. Overall, this review article would assist efforts to make better decisions on optimization and rational utilization of RBCs derivatives-based drug delivery strategies for the future direction in clinical translation.