Ferritin stores and releases iron ions in mammals. It is globally important as a drug nanocarrier. This is because of its unique hollow-spherical structure, desirable stability and biological properties. Novel drug-loading approaches plus various functionalization approaches have been developed to improve ferritin in response to differing demands in disease treatments. Here, we critically review ferritin drug delivery and evaluate its diverse drug-loading and functionalization approaches, we: (1) Introduce basic structural and property information related to ferritin as a drug nanocarrier; (2) Contrast in detail the different means to load drugs and the selection of drug loading means; (3) Discuss multiple ferritin functionalization approaches, together with related advantages and potential risks; and, (4) Compare ferritin with alternative, commonly-used drug nanocarriers. We conclude that despite that no drugs based on ferritin are commercially available, the market potential for it is significant, and evaluate future research directions. Findings from this work will be of immediate benefit and interest to a wide range of researchers and manufacturers for drug delivery using ferritin.

铁蛋白在哺乳动物中储存和释放铁离子。它作为药物纳米载体具有全球重要意义。这是因为其独特的空心球形结构、理想的稳定性和生物学特性。已经开发了新的载药方法和各种功能化方法来改善铁蛋白，以满足疾病治疗的不同需求。在这里，我们批判性地审查铁蛋白药物递送并评估其多种载药和功能化方法，我们：（1）介绍与铁蛋白作为药物纳米载体相关的基本结构和性质信息；(2)详细对比不同的载药方式和载药方式的选择；(3) 讨论多种铁蛋白功能化方法，以及相关优势和潜在风险；(4) 将铁蛋白与替代品进行比较，常用的药物纳米载体。我们得出结论，尽管没有基于铁蛋白的药物可商购，但其市场潜力巨大，并评估了未来的研究方向。这项工作的结果将对使用铁蛋白进行药物输送的广泛研究人员和制造商产生直接的好处和兴趣。