Advances in novel nanomedicine delivery system for hypoxic pulmonary hypertension treatment

Hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH) often occurs in various respiratory diseases or hypoxia-related diseases with a high mortality. During the course of acute hypoxia, pulmonary blood vessels are prone to produce hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) and pulmonary vascular remodeling (PVR), which is an important pathophysiological mechanism to elevate pulmonary arterial pressure. With the constant progress on therapeutic methods, HPH is still an incurable, chronic and disabling disease. Currently, conventional treatments for HPH can only improve patients' symptoms, but not cure HPH, and the drugs are difficult to accumulate in the pulmonary vasculature and have low bioavailability. Recently, nano drug delivery systems (NDDS), as an emerging technology, have been demonstrated to possess powerful effects on improving the targeting and precision of drug efficacy, as well as reducing adverse side effects of drugs. This article reviews the latest progress of lung nano targeted drug delivery systems for HPH treatment, providing a theoretical basis and therapeutic ideas for the treatment of HPH.