Biocompatible nanovesicular drug delivery systems with targeting potential for autoimmune diseases.

: Autoimmune diseases are collectively addressed as chronic conditions initiated by loss of one's immunological tolerance, where body treats its own cells as foreigners or self-antigens. These hay-wired antibodies or immunologically capable cells lead to variety of disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis and recently included neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinsonism and testicular cancer triggered T-cells induced autoimmune response in testes and brain. Conventional treatments for autoimmune diseases possess several downsides due to unfavourable pharmacokinetic behaviour of drug, reflected by low bioavailability, rapid clearance, offsite toxicity, restricted targeting ability and poor therapeutic outcomes. Novel nanovesicular drug delivery systems including liposomes, niosomes, proniosomes, ethosomes, transferosomes, pharmacosomes, ufasomes and biologically originated exosomes have proved to possess alluring prospects in fortifying the combat against autoimmune diseases. These nanovesicles have revitalized available treatment modalities as they are biocompatible, biodegradable, less immunogenic and capable of carrying high drug payloads to deliver both hydrophilic as well as lipophilic drugs to specific sites via passive or active targeting. Due to their unique surface chemistry, they can be decorated with physiological or synthetic ligands to target specific receptors overexpressed in different autoimmune diseases and can even cross blood brain barrier. This review presents exhaustive yet concise information on potentials of various nanovesicular systems as drug carriers in improving the overall therapeutic efficiency of dosage regimen for various autoimmune diseases. The role of endogenous exosomes as biomarkers in diagnosis and prognosis of autoimmune diseases along with monitoring progress of treatment will also be highlighted.