Nano Based Drug Delivery System

Nanotechnology deals with the study and application of minuscule things that can be applied across other sciences, such as biology, chemistry, physics, materials science, and engineering. Nanotechnology deals with things that are between 1 nanometer (nm) to 100 nanometers in size. The use of nanotechnology in medicine, known as Nanomedicine, includes the use of accurately engineered materials and which helps to develop novel therapeutic and leading edge of the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology.

Some unique size dependent properties make these nanomedicines superior and indispensable in many areas of human activity. Nanotechnology is used to overcome some of the limitations found in traditional therapeutic and diagnostic agents’ and is rather a fast rapidly developing field.

On considering the challenges faced by using the large size molecules in drug delivery, which include poor solubility, bio-availability, intestinal absorption, sustained in-vivo stability and targeted delivery to site of action, generalized side effects, therapeutic effectiveness and plasma fluctuations of drugs.

Nanotechnology applications are considered a novelty in the field of drug delivery because of its high specificity towards the target site. This technology can allow target delivery of drugs to the targeted areas of the body, nanostructures can protect drugs from the degradation in the gastrointestinal tract and able to decrease the toxic side effects of drugs to normal cells.

Advantages of nanotechnology in drug delivery are:

·         Decrease in plasma fluctuation of drugs,

·         Efficiency of drug delivery

·         High solubility,

·         Enhancement of patience comfort

·         Decrease in the cost of products used in drug delivery

Nanotechnology increases oral bioavailability of drugs due to their specialized uptake mechanisms such as absorptive endocytosis and can remain in the blood circulation for a long time, releasing the incorporated drug in a controlled fashion, and leading to less plasma fluctuations and minimized side-effects.

Following are the three types of Nano based Drug delivery systems

1)Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems

·         Smart drug delivery systems

·         Polymer–drug conjugates

·         Multifunctional drug carriers

·         Organic/inorganic composites

2)Nanoparticulate drug delivery systems

·         Liposomes

·         Microemulsions

·         Nanoparticles

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3)Some natural polymers in nanodrug delivery

·         Starch

·         Chitosan

·         Gelatin