ABSTRACT:
Biomimetic nanocarriers represent an emerging approach in targeted drug delivery, engineered to replicate the structural and functional characteristics of natural biological components such as cell membranes, extracellular vesicles, and endogenous proteins. This review examines their design principles, classification, materials, fabrication methods, and mechanism of action, with emphasis on how membrane-derived surface properties prolong systemic circulation, reduce immune recognition, and enable stimuli-responsive, site-specific drug release. Reported applications span cancer therapy, gene and nucleic acid delivery, immunotherapy, brain-targeted delivery, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial therapy, regenerative medicine, and vaccine and theranostic platforms, with biomimetic systems consistently showing improved biocompatibility, targeting precision, and reduced systemic toxicity relative to conventional nanocarriers. Key challenges remain in fabrication complexity, batch-to-batch variability, large-scale manufacturing, long-term safety evaluation, and regulatory classification of these hybrid biological-synthetic systems. Continued advances in hybrid membrane engineering, stimuli-responsive design, and computational optimization indicate that biomimetic nanocarriers hold substantial potential to advance safer, more precise, and personalized therapeutic strategies.