Atherosclerosis is the leading inducement of cardiovascular diseases, which ranks the first cause of global deaths. It is an arterial disease associated with dyslipidemia and changes in the composition of the vascular wall. Besides invasive surgical strategy, the current conservative clinical treatment for atherosclerosis falls into two categories, lipid regulating-based therapy and antiinflammatory therapy. However, the existing strategies based on conventional drug delivery systems have shown limited efficacy against disease development and plenty of side effects. Nanomedicine has great potential in the development of targeted therapy, controlled drug delivery and release, the design of novel specific drugs and diagnostic modalities, and biocompatible scaffolds with multifunctional characteristics, which has led to an evolution in the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. This paper will focus on the latest nanomedicine strategies for atherosclerosis diagnosis and treatment as well as discussing the potential therapeutic targets during atherosclerosis progress, which could form the basis of development of novel nanoplatform against atherosclerosis.

动脉粥样硬化是心血管疾病的主要诱因，是全球死亡的首位原因。它是一种与血脂异常和血管壁组成变化有关的动脉疾病。除了侵入性手术策略外，当前用于动脉粥样硬化的保守临床治疗分为两类，基于脂质调节的治疗和抗炎治疗。然而，基于常规药物递送系统的现有策略已经显示出对抗疾病发展的有限的功效和大量的副作用。纳米医学在靶向治疗，可控药物的释放和释放，新型特殊药物和诊断方法的设计以及具有多功能特性的生物相容性支架方面具有巨大潜力，这导致了动脉粥样硬化的诊断和治疗的发展。本文将重点介绍用于动脉粥样硬化诊断和治疗的最新纳米药物策略，并讨论在动脉粥样硬化进展过程中的潜在治疗靶标，这可为开发新型抗动脉粥样硬化纳米平台奠定基础。