HEPATIC TARGETING – ADDRESSING VITAL THERAPEUTIC NEEDS

Hepatic afflictions continue to pose serious challenges in therapy. The liver exhibits different types of cells, mainly, kupffer cells, sinusoidal endothelial cells, stellate cells and pit cells which represent reticuloendothelial systems. hepatocytes are the non-reticuloendothelial system. While infectious diseases generally affect reticuloendothelial systems, other serious hepatic afflictions are hepatocyteresident. Targeted approaches including passive and active targeting to the various cell types can be employed as an effective strategy to overcome the current challenges. Hepatic afflictions like infectious disease, hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatitis, malaria and others could be target diseases for such improved therapy. Nanomedicine approaches could, therefore, provide a ray of hope for improved therapy of life-threatening hepatic afflictions.