Acupoint drug delivery: An integrative strategy for multimorbidity treatment

The rising prevalence of multimorbidity exposes the critical limitations of conventional single-disease treatment approaches. Multimorbidity involves complex pathological interactions across multiple organ systems, often generating conflicting therapeutic demands and necessitating a shift from isolated interventions toward integrated treatment strategies. Acupoints, characterized by unique microvascular networks and enriched neuroimmune components, function as dynamic bio-interfaces on the body surface. These specialized regions provide distinct pharmacokinetic advantages for drug delivery: they enhance drug permeability, enable targeted distribution, and can be engineered for sustained release through advanced formulation strategies. Recent studies have demonstrated that acupoint drug delivery systems, such as nanocomposite hydrogels, microneedle patches, and magnetically responsive implants, not only increase local drug concentration but also leverage the neuroimmune interface properties of acupoints to achieve systemic regulatory effects. This article synthesizes the microenvironmental advantages of acupoint drug delivery, advances in carrier platforms, and mechanisms for modulating multiple organ networks, proposing acupoint-targeted drug delivery as a novel integrative intervention approach for the treatment of multimorbidity.