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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.

Sec. Inflammation

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1653642

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Tissue Repair: Immunomodulatory Bioactive Hydrogels and Immune Cell InteractionsView all 6 articles

Liposome-Mediated Macrophage Reprogramming: Emerging Strategies for Chronic Disease Therapy

Provisionally accepted
  • Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

With the rapid advancement of nanotechnology, the application of nanomedicine has become increasingly widespread, demonstrating remarkable potential for highly precise targeting and efficacious drug delivery. Compared to conventional drug delivery approaches, nanomedicine effectively addresses issues such as nonspecific drug distribution and severe adverse effects, significantly enhancing therapeutic efficacy through its targeted delivery mechanisms. As an innovative drug delivery vehicle, liposomes exhibit tremendous application potential owing to their outstanding biocompatibility, extensive applicability, remarkable ability to improve drug stability and bioavailability, precise targeting capabilities, membrane structures that facilitate drug permeation, and high degree of tunability. In the field of chronic disease management, liposomes serve as sophisticated vehicles for targeted and controlled drug delivery, offering innovative therapeutic approaches for various chronic conditions. Macrophages, playing a pivotal role in modulating inflammatory responses and promoting tissue repair, have emerged as crucial targets for alleviating inflammatory symptoms. Nevertheless, achieving precise and efficient targeting of macrophages remains a significant challenge in current research. This article systematically reviews recent advances in liposome-based therapies for chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and asthma), and metabolic disorders (e.g., diabetes), with particular emphasis on the therapeutic potential of liposomes in modulating macrophage activity. Furthermore, it summarizes and analyzes the major challenges and obstacles currently faced in the liposome research, providing novel insights for future research directions and facilitating the translation of research findings into clinical applications.

Keywords: Liposome, macrophage, chronic diseases, Nanomedicines, Inflammation

Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 zhang, Hu, Wang and Zhai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Shaodong Zhai, zhaishaodong@sxbqeh.com.cn

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