Advances in the research of protein nanocarrier materials

Nanotechnology has brought new strategies in the area of pharmaceutical sciences, especially in the drug delivery system. Among them, the application of protein as drug carriers has drawn extensive attention. A wide variety of proteins that have been used fordrug delivery system including the common animal- and plant-basedproteins, as well as the recombinant protein nanoparticles, which possess many advantages such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, low antigenicity, higher stability and drug loading property. This system is of great significance in the fields of clinical treatment, especially targeted therapy of tumors. In this paper, the fabrication of nanoparticles from animal, botanical, and recombinant proteins are described. And then, trend of development in protein-based nanocarriers is also prospected.