Nano-Sized Carriers for Drug Delivery

Abstract

Drug delivery is an important issue, especially with a new generation of therapeutics, which are either unstable in the biological environment, have poor transport properties across biological membranes, are insoluble in water, or have very low bioavailability. Nano-sized drug carriers can address some of the above issues and enhance their therapeutic efficacy. Different types of nano-sized carriers, such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanocages, dendrimers, etc., are being developed for various drug-delivery applications. The challenge is to determine the therapeutic dose of the drug formulated in a system, which could be significantly different from that of the drug nanocarrier. In this regard, a better understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease condition under consideration is critical so that one can select and design an appropriate drug carrier system that would deliver a therapeutic dose of the drug in the target tissue or a body compartment at a rate and for the duration that is therapeutically effective and can cure the disease.Key WordsConjugatesdrug therapynanomedicinenanosystemspolymerstargeting