Abstract

Conventional drug administration mostly relies on systemic introduction of drugs into the circulatory system. Before reaching the target site, the drugs must cross many biological barriers and go through different biophysicochemical environments. These factors affect the activity of the drugs and reduce their potency as they may be enzymatically degraded or hydrolyzed and rapidly removed from the body through the urinary system, resulting in a suboptimal concentration of drugs at the desired site. With the advent of the microfluidic technologies, new opportunities have emerged for better control of drug delivery. Miniaturized drug delivery systems integrated inside micro- and nanofluidic devices have been designed that provide prolonged drug release at constant rates and at times, in a pulsatile manner, as desired by the diseases that are to be treated. This chapter reviews different aspects of the microfluidic technologies in drug delivery applications and recent advances in controlled local drug delivery made possible by such technologies.

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