Use of Nanotechnologies for Drug Delivery
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10/31/2006
3:09 PM
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Use of
Nanotechnologies for Drug Delivery Parag Shah
Abstract The emerging field of nanotechnology has an enormous potential contribution to make to the field of pharmaceutical materials science. The advantages of drug nanoparticles can be as simple as dissolution rate enhancement through increased surface area or as complex as targeted delivery through novel pathways. However, the application of many nanoscale technologies has been slow because of difficulties controlling the drug form with decreasing particle size and maintaining chemical and physical stability upon storage. Advancing beyond these limitations requires a unique understanding of both the material properties of the active ingredients as well as the physical chemistry of the nano-sized particle. This article will examine the current challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry in applying nanotechnology, with a focus on the deficiencies in understanding that need to be addressed to move forward. Keywords: biomedical, nanoscale, particle.
Applications and Advantages of Nanoparticles The field of nanotechnology and pharmaceutical materials is complex and often ill defined. For inorganic materials and microelectronics, nanotechnology implies deviation from bulk behavior where the material properties change as the size of the material decreases. These changes are often associated with quantum confinement or changes in the electron mean free path. Nanotechnology in the pharmaceutical setting is not as clearly defined, as “nanoparticles” can encompass everything from advanced microparticles, with no change in bulk drug behavior, to composite materials with significant material property control. What is consistent is the interest in applying nanotechnology, in particular, pharmaceutical nanoparticles, for the advancement of drug delivery. Pharmaceutical nanoparticles encompass a wide variety of materials for numerous applications. To date, nanoparticles of amorphous and crystalline drugs, cocrystals, emulsions, liposomes, polymers, and many others have been prepared. The complexity of these materials varies from small crystalline drug particles coated with a stabilizer to amorphous particles of
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drug and polymer coated with protein layers for protection. The applications also vary from simple size reduction for enhanced dissolution rate to particles designed for passive or even active targeting to specific tissues and cells in the body. An overview of the current and future drug delivery applications where nanoparticles will play a critical role follows, with a special focus on prevalent nanoparticle synthesis techniques and their advantages and shortcomings.
Increased Dissolution Rate The major application for pharmaceutical nanoparticles has been to overcome poor solubility of drug compounds. Estimates indicate that almost half of all new chemical entities developed by the pharmaceutical industry are poorly watersoluble. Poorly water-soluble drugs exhibit low saturation solubility, leading to slow dissolution rates
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