Nanoparticles as Targeted Drug Delivery Agents: Synthesis, Mechanism and Applications

Abstract

Extensive research is going on therapeutic delivery but the problem to develop a proper carrier still exists that can deliver drugs to specific sites of the body or target cells to treat diseases. The problems of therapeutic delivery are associated with low efficacy caused by carrier plasma instability and high toxicity, clearance by the reticulo endothelial system (RES), as well as the existence of various intracellular barriers. Today nanotechnology is a developing field and applications of nanoparticles in drug delivery succeed to overcome the above hurdles. Nanoparticles enhance the gathering of drug in the affected tissues based on the surface properties and enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. Therefore, nanoparticles increase the uptake of the drugs by cells and minimize the adverse effect through both specific and enhanced interactions between the targeted cells and nanoparticles. The small size of nanoparticles is responsible for its high surface area which is responsible to readily interact with biomolecules at the surface as well as inside the cells. This helps the target specificity for therapeutics. The use of nanoparticles helps to reduce the toxicity of the therapeutic agent, the treatment efficacy is improved, and side effects are decreased. The nanoparticles can be used in a stealth mode in which therapeutic agents are loaded into nanoparticles which are not identified by the immune system and nanoparticles carry the drugs to selectively targets. Recent research in the field of drug delivery is mainly focused on use of nanoparticles as drug carriers for health challenging diseases such as cancer, HIV, and diabetes. The common treatment for these diseases is not so much effective and most of the time the cure is death. Nanoparticles have been identified to securely carry the drugs to infected cells that can be a useful tool to fight the diseases. In case of cancer, traditional chemotherapy might not be successful because anticancer drugs disperse to the whole body and destroy both the normal and affected cells. Nanoparticles can replace this treatment with a more promising one that could meet these challenges. Current chapter is mainly focused on the targeted drug delivery by using nanoparticles. The mechanism of action of targeted delivery is discussed in detail with the applications of different types of nanoparticles in targeted delivery. The chapter also put some light on the synthetic procedures of nanoparticles for use in targeted drug delivery. The present chapter will be of great importance to both students and researchers.