Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Systems for Tuberculosis Treatment

Tuberculosis remains a leading cause of infectious mortality worldwide, and traditional chemotherapy is hampered by long treatment regimens, poor patient adherence and the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Nanoparticle drug delivery systems offer a multifaceted solution: they can encapsulate multiple anti-tubercular agents, protect labile compounds from premature degradation, and achieve controlled release at the site of infection. By tailoring size, surface chemistry and charge, nanoparticles may preferentially accumulate in the pulmonary alveoli or within infected macrophages, enhancing local drug concentrations while reducing systemic exposure. Recent advances span lipid-based particles, polymeric carriers, inorganic frameworks and hybrid constructs, each with distinct advantages in biocompatibility, drug-loading capacity and release kinetics. Surface functionalisation—using ligands such as mannose or mycolic acids—further refines targeting to mycobacterium-infected phagocytes. Collectively, these strategies promise shorter regimens, lower toxicity and improved outcomes in both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have demonstrated the feasibility of a solvent-free heating method to encapsulate a large isoniazid–phthalocyanine conjugate complex within soybean-lecithin liposomes. This approach achieved encapsulation efficiencies above 70%, yielding stable vesicles approximately 240 nm in diameter with high negative zeta potential. In vitro release profiles revealed pH-responsive behaviour, with near-complete drug release under acidic conditions mimicking the phagosomal environment. Such findings illustrate a simple, cost-effective route to prepare multifunctional liposomal carriers capable of site-specific anti-tubercular delivery without requiring specialised equipment or organic solvents.

Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Systems for Tuberculosis Treatment publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in nanoparticle drug delivery systems for tuberculosis treatment across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Nanoparticle: A particle with dimensions below 1,000 nm used to deliver therapeutic agents with controlled biodistribution.

Liposome: A spherical vesicle composed of lipid bilayers capable of encapsulating hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs.

Polymeric nanoparticle: A colloidal carrier formed from biodegradable polymers for sustained and targeted drug release.

Encapsulation efficiency: The proportion of a drug successfully loaded into a carrier relative to the total amount used in formulation.

Zeta potential: The electrical potential at the particle surface, influencing stability and interaction with biological membranes.

Phagolysosome: A cellular compartment formed by fusion of a phagosome with a lysosome, responsible for microbial degradation.

References

1. Nanosized Drug Delivery Systems to Fight Tuberculosis. Pharmaceutics (2023).
2. Engineering mannose-functionalized nanostructured lipid carriers by sequential design using hybrid artificial intelligence tools. Drug Delivery and Translational Research (2024).
3. Mycolic acids, a promising mycobacterial ligand for targeting of nanoencapsulated drugs in tuberculosis. Journal of Controlled Release (2015).
4. Encapsulation of Isoniazid-conjugated Phthalocyanine-In-Cyclodextrin-In-Liposomes Using Heating Method. Scientific Reports (2019).