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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Drug Discov Today. 2017 May 6;22(9):1336–1350. doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2017.04.021

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Nanotechnology-based administration strategies for bone drug delivery. (a) Chitosan (CS) nanocarriers for the oral delivery of iron-saturated bovine lactoferrin for osteoarthritis treatment. (i) Fluorescence intensity of a Cy5.5-labeled nanocarrier comprising an alginate-enclosed CS-calcium phosphate (CaP) nanocarrier, encapsulated with Fe-bLf (AEC-CaP-Fe-bLf-NC) demonstrated localization in joint cartilage (arrows). (ii) Histological analysis of joints illustrated that AEC-CaP-Fe-bLf-NC improved cartilage regeneration and had antiarthritic effects. (b) Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for the dual delivery of growth factors to promote bone regeneration. (i) Sequential release of FGF-2 from the core-shell structure of nanofibrous scaffold, followed by release of FGF-18 from mesoporous silica nanoparticles. (ii) Micro-CT analysis of improved bone formation after dual delivery of FGF-2 and FGF-18 from a nanofibrous scaffold. (c) Injectable delivery of bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) using thermosensitive hydrogels. (i) Thermosensitive poly (phosphazene) hydrogels promoted BMP-2 release from dual-interacting polymeric nanoparticles (D-NPs) at physiological temperatures. (ii) Cumulative release of BMP-2 from D-NPs in vitro. (iii) X-ray of the site of injection of hydrogels, and micro-CT analysis of new bone formation. (d) Transdermal delivery of methotrexate (MTX)-loaded lipid nanocarriers (LNCs) for rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Local application of gel containing MTX-loaded LNCs on rat paws reduced the severity of inflammation. Reproduced, with permission, from [92] (a), [104] (b), [113] (c), and [115] (d).