Dissipative Particle Dynamics Aided Design of Drug Delivery Systems: A Review

A nanocarrier drug delivery system, effectively assisting to improve the solubility, bioavailability, and targeting of drugs in the human body, is a crucial means for treating cancer and other diseases. However, drug carriers usually possess multiple components and complex microstructures, and studies on the formation mechanism and internal structural details of nanocarriers are still incomplete by experimental methods. In order to overcome this adversity, the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation has been widely used owing to its unique simulation time-space scale and satisfying computing efficiency. In the past decades, more and more kinds of complex nanocarriers with various structures have been successfully characterized, and influencing factors in mounting numbers have also been parametrized. Not only emphasizing on the self-assembly structure of nanocarriers, but the application area of DPD simulation has also become a complete system covering from the synthesis and preparation to interaction with the biomembrane. This article reviews the application of DPD simulations in drug delivery systems. We have established the connection between existing studies and proposed some outlooks for the further combination between DPD simulation and the design of a drug delivery system.