Nanocarrier-Based Herbal Drug Delivery System for the Management of Liver Diseases

Abstract

Liver disease poses potential therapeutic challenges, as ongoing hepatic injury is correlated with oxidative stress, inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, fibrosis, and impaired hepatocellular function. There are many medicinal plants and their bioactive ingredients with hepatoprotective, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, but their effectiveness is restricted by problems with water solubility, bioavailability, instability, rapid metabolism, and hepatic delivery. To address this issue, the use of nanocarriers for the delivery of herbal bioactives has become a promising approach to enhance their therapeutic potential. This review focuses on a targeted introduction of the herbal nanocarrier-based treatment approach for liver diseases and the correlation between the various properties of the nanocarrier and the enhancement effect of the plant-derived compounds’ delivery in the liver. Important nanocarrier-based systems such as liposomes, phytosomes, niosomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, and other emerging systems are mentioned in relation to their structural features, drug-loading capacity, stability, controlled-release features, bioavailability, and hepatic targeting possibilities. It also highlights some of the herbal bioactives that have been attached to nanocarriers and their uses in hepatotoxicity, fatty liver syndrome, fibrosis, inflammation, and liver cancer. Mainly the nanocarriers help increase the solubility of bioactive molecules, prevent their degradation, extend systemic action, improve their accumulation in the liver, and increase their efficacy in treatment relative to classical herbal formulations. Finally, current state-of-the-art limitations, formulation challenges, safety and standardization aspects, and future possibilities for clinical translation in the context of herbal nanocarrier systems are presented.