Do Polymeric Nanoparticles Really Enhance the Bioavailability of Oral Drugs? A Quantitative Answer Using Meta-Analysis.

Rania M Hathout

doi:10.3390/gels8020119

Abstract

The oral route remains one of the most popular and important routes of administration for drugs—one that warrants the development of advanced drug delivery systems, such as polymeric nanoparticles capable of enhancing the absorption and bioavailability of the used drugs. In this work, a systematic review of published works on several databases, followed by a meta-analysis, were utilized in order to navigate the published studies and access literature-based evidence about the capability of polymeric nanoparticulate systems to augment the absorption and bioavailability of orally administered drugs. The pharmacokinetic parameter of the area under the curve (AUC) was utilized as the “effect” of this meta-analytical study. The meta-analysis demonstrated a significant increase in AUC compared to conventional formulations. Furthermore, comparing the synthetic polymeric nanoparticles, versus their naturally-based administered counterparts, as subgroups of the meta-analysis, revealed no significant differences.

Highlights

The oral route remains the most common route of drug administration and one of the most convenient and acceptable to patients, due to its non-invasiveness and ease of administration [1]
From the pharmaceutical point of view, polymeric nanoparticles are of special interest as they are more stable than other lipidic nanocarriers, such as liposomes, and impart more protective effects to their internal cargo [7–9]
The investigated articles were considered to be eligible for assessment if they were published in the last decade, included the methodology, offered original data, and the discussion was related to drugs loaded in polymeric nanoparticles (NP) that are utilized for oral delivery

Summary

Introduction

The oral route remains the most common route of drug administration and one of the most convenient and acceptable to patients, due to its non-invasiveness and ease of administration [1]. It is preferred by the pharmaceutical industry due to the feasibility of its mass production [2]. From the pharmaceutical point of view, polymeric nanoparticles are of special interest as they are more stable than other lipidic nanocarriers, such as liposomes, and impart more protective effects to their internal cargo [7–9] They are distinguished by their facile modulation regarding their size, hydrophobicity, and surface grafting and conjugation [10–13]. The same informatics tools of systematic reviewing and meta-analysis are utilized in this study to answer this question

Objectives

Methods

Results