Exosomes (exos), nanoscale extracellular vesicles, play a critical role in tissue development and function. Stem cell-derived exos, containing various tissue repair components, show promise as natural therapeutic agents in disease treatment and regenerative medicine. However, challenges persist in their application, particularly in targeted delivery and controlled release, which are crucial for enhancing their biological efficacy. The integration of medical devices may provide a superior platform for improving drug bioavailability. Consequently, the combination products of stem cell-derived exos and medical devices present novel opportunities for expanding the therapeutic potential of exosomes. This review offers a comprehensive overview of the current research frontier in stem cell-derived exos combined with medical devices and discusses the prospective challenges and future prospects in this field.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition. Natural products have gained traction in AD treatment due to their accessibility, low toxicity, and favorable pharmacological properties. However, their application is primarily constrained by poor solubility, instability, and limited permeability. The transdermal drug delivery system (TDDS) offers potential solutions for transdermal delivery, enhanced penetration, improved efficacy, and reduced toxicity of natural drugs, aligning with the requirements of modern AD treatment. This review examines the application of hydrogels, microneedles (MNs), liposomes, nanoemulsions, and other TDDS-carrying natural products in AD treatment, with a primary focus on their effects on penetration and accumulation in the skin. The aim is to provide valuable insights into the treatment of AD and other dermatological conditions.

Natural compounds demonstrate unique therapeutic advantages for cancer treatment, primarily through direct tumor suppression or interference with the tumor microenvironment (TME). Glycyrrhizic acid (GL), a bioactive ingredient derived from the medicinal herb Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch., and its sapogenin glycyrrhetinic acid (GA), have been recognized for their ability to inhibit angiogenesis and remodel the TME. Consequently, the combination of GL with other therapeutic agents offers superior therapeutic benefits. Given GL’s amphiphilic structure, self-assembly capability, and liver cancer targeting capacity, various GL-based nanoscale drug delivery systems have been developed. These GL-based nanosystems exhibit angiogenesis suppression and TME regulation properties, synergistically enhancing anti-cancer effects. This review summarizes recent advances in GL-based nanosystems, including polymer-drug micelles, drug-drug assembly nanoparticles (NPs), liposomes, and nanogels, for cancer treatment and tumor postoperative care, providing new insights into the anti-cancer potential of natural compounds. Additionally, the review discusses existing challenges and future perspectives for translating GL-based nanosystems from bench to bedside.

In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on exploring innovative drug delivery approaches due to the limitations of conventional therapeutic strategies, such as inadequate drug targeting, insufficient therapeutic efficacy, and significant adverse effects. Nanomedicines have emerged as a promising solution with notable advantages, including extended drug circulation, targeted delivery, and improved bioavailability, potentially enhancing the clinical treatment of various diseases. Natural products/materials-derived nanomedicines, characterized by their natural therapeutic efficacy, superior biocompatibility, and safety profile, play a crucial role in nanomedicine-based treatments. This review provides a comprehensive overview of currently approved natural products-derived nanomedicines, emphasizing the essential properties of natural products-derived drug carriers, their applications in clinical diagnosis and treatment, and the current therapeutic potential and challenges. The aim is to offer guidance for the application and further development of these innovative therapeutic approaches.

Essential oils (EOs) are natural, volatile substances derived from aromatic plants. They exhibit multiple pharmacological effects, including antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, with broad application prospects in health care, food, and agriculture. However, the instability of volatile components, which are susceptible to deterioration under light, heat, and oxygen exposure, as well as limited water solubility, have significantly impeded the development and application of EOs. Porous nanoclays are natural clay minerals with a layered structure. They possess unique structural characteristics such as large pore size, regular distribution, and tunable particle size, which are extensively utilized in drug delivery, adsorption separation, reaction catalysis, and other fields. Natural-derived porous nanoclays have garnered considerable attention for the encapsulation and delivery of EOs. This review comprehensively summarizes the structure, types, and properties of natural-derived porous nanoclays, focusing on the structural characteristics of porous nanoclays such as montmorillonite, palygorskite, halloysite, kaolinite, vermiculite, and natural zeolite. It also examines research advances in their delivery of EOs and explores engineering strategies to enhance the delivery of EOs by natural-derived porous nanoclays. Finally, various applications of natural-derived porous nanoclays for EOs in antibacterial, food preservation, repellent, and insecticide aspects are presented, providing a reference for the development and application of EOs.

Active herbal ingredients are gaining recognition for their potent anti-tumor efficacy, attributable to various mechanisms including tumor cell inhibition, immune system activation, and tumor angiogenesis inhibition. Recent studies have revealed that numerous anti-tumor herbal ingredients, such as ginsenosides, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, and Angelica sinensis polysaccharides, can be utilized to develop smart drug carriers like liposomes, micelles, and nanoparticles. These carriers can deliver active herbal ingredients and co-deliver anti-tumor drugs to enhance drug accumulation at tumor sites, thereby improving anti-tumor efficacy. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms by which these active herbal ingredients-derived carriers enhance therapeutic outcomes. Additionally, it highlights the structural properties of these active herbal ingredients, demonstrating how their unique features can be strategically employed to design smart drug carriers with improved anti-tumor efficacy. The insights presented aim to serve as a reference and guide future innovations in the design and application of smart drug carriers for cancer therapy that leverage active herbal ingredients.

Natural endogenous materials (NEMs), such as cell and cell derivatives, polysaccharide, protein and peptide, and nucleic acid-derived vectors, often exhibit biocompatibility, biodegradability and natural homing ability, which can minimize adverse reactions in vivo and have the potential to improve drug delivery efficacy. Currently, a variety of drug delivery systems (DDSs) based on NEMs have been constructed for macromolecules to address the challenges posed by their inherent large size, intricate structure, low permeability, and susceptibility to harsh environments. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of various delivery strategies that predominantly utilize NEMs as carriers for macromolecular delivery. By thoroughly discussing the pros and cons of NEM-based DDSs, we hope to provide valuable insights into future innovations in pharmaceutical science, with a focus on improving therapeutic outcomes through advanced drug formulations.

The treatment of tumors continues to be significantly challenging. The presence of multiple modalities, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the therapeutic outcomes remain limited and are often associated with adverse effects and inconsistent efficacy across cancer types. Recent studies have highlighted the potential of active components from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for their anti-cancer properties, which are attributable to multi-targeted mechanisms and broad pharmacological actions. Despite this potential, TCM-derived compounds are commonly limited by poor water solubility, low bioavailability, and suboptimal targeting. Currently, it is believed that advances in nanotechnology could address these limitations. Nanoparticles (NPs), which possess properties such as enhanced bioavailability, controlled release and precise targeting, have been used to improve the therapeutic efficacy of TCM components in cancer therapy. This review discusses the use of NPs for the delivery of active TCM compounds via organic-inorganic nanocarriers, highlighting innovative strategies that enhance the effectiveness of TCM-based anti-tumor components to provide insights into improving clinical outcomes while advancing the modernization and global application of TCM in oncology.