Table 2.

A summary of microglia/macrophage-targeting platforms reported in recent studies.

Targeted cells	Platform	Route of administration	Delivered therapeutics?	Model of evaluation/Application	Effects on targeted cells
Microglia	Quantum dots (QD) [89]	Intracranial	No	Mixed primary glia culture, healthy mouse	N/A
Microglia	Gold Nanoparticle [103]	Intranasal	No	Mixed primary glia culture, healthy mouse	N/A
Microglia, Astrocytes, Oligodendrocytes	Hydroxyl terminated G4 PAMAM Dendrimer [90]	Intravenous	N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)	Mouse model of ischemia- induced neonatal white matter injury	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia, Astrocytes	Hydroxyl terminated G4 PAMAM Dendrimer [104]	Intravenous	N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)	Rabbit model of Cerebral Palsy	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia	Liposome [91]	Intravenous	Inhibitor of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF):Chicago sky blue	Rat model of Spinal Cord injury	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia	Poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) nanoparticles [92]	Intraspinal	Minocycline	Mouse model of Spinal Cord injury	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia, Astrocytes, Oligodendrocytes	Carboxymethylchitosan/polya midoamine (CMCht/PAMAM) dendrimer [93]	-	Methylprednisolone	Mixed primary glia culture	N/A
Microglia	PLGA nanoparticles [94]	Intraspinal	Methylprednisolone	Rat model of Spinal Cord injury	Reduce activated microglia/macrophage population
Microglia	poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanoparticles [95]	Intraspinal	No	Mouse model Spinal Cord injury	N/A
Microglia	Carbon Nanotube (CNT) [105]	-	Dexamethasone	in vitro microglia cell culture	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia	Iron oxide nanoparticle [106]	-	No	in vitro microglia cell culture	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Circulating macrophage	Mannose modified liposome [96, 97]	Intravenous	Dichloromethylene diphosphonate (Cl2MDP)	Rat model of Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis (EAE)	Control infiltrating macrophages
M2 Macrophage	Nanozyme [98]	Intravenous	Catalase	Mouse model of Parkinson’s disease	Attenuates oxidative stress
Tumor associated macrophage	Gold nanoshell [100, 107]	-	Photothermal therapy	in vitro microglia cell culture in vitro glioma spheroids culture	Control of microglia/macrophage population
Tumor associated macrophage	Hydroxyl terminated G4 PAMAM Dendrimer [101]	Intravenous	No	Rat model of Glioblastoma (GBM)	N/A
Tumor associated macrophage	Carbon Nanotube (CNT) [108, 109]	Intratumoral	CpG oligodeoxynucleotides	Mouse model of GBM	Increase infiltration of anti- tumor inflammatory cells
Microglia	Iron oxide nanoparticle [110]	-	CpG oligodeoxynucleotides	in vitro microglia cell culture	Control microglia migration
Microglia	G4 PAMAM Dendrimer, hydroxyl terminated (G4-OH) and amine terminated (G4- NH2) [111]	-	Celastrol	in vitro microglia cell culture	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia	Carboxymethyldextran-block- poly(ethylene glycol) [112]	-	Minocycline	in vitro microglia cell culture	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia	Multivalent niacin nanoconjugates [113]	-	No	in vitro microglia cell culture	Target lipid droplet in microglia
Microglia	Dendritic polyglycerol sulfate (dPGS) [114]	-	No	in vitro microglia cell culture and ex vivo hippocampus slice culture	Control of microglial/macrophage activation and inflammatory cytokine release
Microglia	Quantum Dots (QD) [115]	-	No	in vitro microglia cell culture	Study inflammation in molecular level
Macrophage	Phosphorus Dendrimer [116]	-	No	in vitro macrophage cell culture	Imaging macrophage polarization

For each platform, delivered therapeutics; model of evaluation/application and effects on targeted cells are described.