Owing to their unique biological functions, hyaluronic acid (HA) and its derivatives have been explored extensively for biomedical applications such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, and molecular imaging. In particular, self-assembled HA nanoparticles (HA-NPs) have been used widely as target-specific and long-acting nanocarriers for the delivery of a wide range of therapeutic or diagnostic agents. Recently, it has been demonstrated that empty HA-NPs without bearing any therapeutic agent can be used therapeutically for the treatment of inflammatory diseases via modulating inflammatory responses. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of the significant achievements in this field and highlight the potential of HA-NPs for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
Funding: This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Programs through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2019R1A2B5B03100464, 2019M3E5D5066525, and 2018R1A2B3006080) and by the Ministry of Education (2019R1A6A1A11051471).
