Current strategies for drug delivery to the inner ear

Abstract

For many years, drug delivery to the inner ear has been a challenge to physicians in the treatment of inner ear disorders. In the past decade, the field of inner ear drug delivery has emerged with the development of new biomaterials and drug delivery technologies to improve the effectiveness of inner ear drug therapy. This paper reviews a number of inner ear drug delivery strategies including systemic, intratympanic, and intracochlear delivery. A focus of this review is the recent advances in intratympanic delivery of medications; approaches utilizing novel biomaterials as well as other recent developments are also discussed. Biotechnology-based approaches, such as gene and stem cell therapy methods are also reviewed. Among the various strategies, local drug delivery approaches including intratympanic and intracochlear drug delivery methods that limit systemic exposure are particularly promising. These inner ear drug delivery systems provide a new opportunity to improve the treatment of inner ear disorders.