Advances in refunctionalization of erythrocyte-based nanomedicine for enhancing cancer-targeted drug delivery

Cancer remains a daunting and cureless disease, which is responsible for one-sixth of human deaths worldwide. These mortality rates have been expected to rise in the future due to the side effects of conventional treatments (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery), which can be addressed by applying nanomedicine. In order to escape from biological barriers, such nanomedicine should be mimicked and designed to be stealthy while navigating in the bloodstream. To achieve this, scientists take advantage of erythrocytes (red blood cells; RBCs) as drug carriers and develop RBC membrane (RBCm) coating nanotechnology. Thanks to the significant advances in nanoengineering, various facile surface functionalization methods can be applied to arm RBCm with not only targeting moieties, but also imaging agents, therapeutic agents, and nanoparticles, which are useful for theranostic nanomedicine. This review focuses on refunctionalization of erythrocyte-based nanomedicine for enhancing cancer-targeted drug delivery.