Role of Nano-Particles in Drug Therapy-Drug Delivery Approach

Nanotechnology is gaining more importance in various disciplines of science. In medicine, nanotechnology may be useful for either diagnostics of diseases or its treatment. The nanotechnology is applied in manufacture of imaging agents, nanoelectronic biosensors, nanodevices, and microdevices with nanostructures. Applications concerned to treatment of diseases are the great achievement by the research scientists and nanotechnology based drug delivery systems are expected to significantly redesign the mode of existing drugs as favorable drug pharmacokinetics, biodistribution profiles, improved efficacy and safety can be achieved. Thus, nanomedicine revolutionized the therapeutics and diagnostics. Nano-based Drug delivery systems constitutes of a significant portion of nanomedicine which includes drug-polymer conjugates, polymeric nanoparticles, solid-lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers and polymer micelles etc. A major contribution of nanomedicine is towards treating cancer, targeting the drug to the tumor as well as in reducing multidrug resistance.

Nanotechnology provides a promising alternative to conventional chemotherapeutics, evading Multidrug Resistance (MDR) by encapsulating, attaching, and conjugating drugs or therapeutic biological products to nanocarriers and also by targeting the tumor cell. Abraxane® was the first nanoparticle drug formulation to receive US-FDA approval in 2005, which is Nanometer-Albumin-Bound (NAB) paclitaxel for head and neck cancer, metastatic breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and anal cancer. Another application is to carry the drug molecules through Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) in targeting brain disorders. It may be useful in treating various Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders, as BBB is the main obstacle to transportation of the drug to the brain. A drug poorly distributed to the brain can be loaded on a nano-carrier system with or without targeting moieties (ligand) which interacts with the endothelial microvessel cells at the BBB and produces higher drug concentrations in brain parenchyma.

The use of nano-carriers can also improve the brain delivery of Anti-Retro Viral Drugs (ARVs) by increasing the availability of ARVs to the CNS-compartment and it is possible to reduce their doses and shorten the length of therapy. The development of nanotechnology-based molecular diagnostic platforms helps in diagnosing infectious disease such as AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, which utilizes gold/silver nanoparticles as contrast agents in various laboratory assays. In addition, solubility enhancement is one of the major areas of drug delivery application of nanotechnology, wherein, improved safety and efficacy can be achieved by reducing dose of the drug. Nanosuspensions, nanoemulsions and nanocrystals are some of the examples of nano-formulations utilized for enhancing solubilitydependent poor bioavailability. Nanocrystals offer the advantage of high drug loading which makes them very efficient in transporting drug to or into cells, reaching at high therapeutic concentration for the pharmacological effect. It is obvious that the nanotechnology offer platform for targeted drug delivery which is expected to increase the efficacy of the drug and diminish possible side-effects, through the reduction of the dose and targeting the drug to the desired site of action. However, the nano-scale carriers themselves may exert untoward effects.

The small size may ease nanoparticles to permeate through various biological barriers in the body which may give rise to unexpected toxicities. Toxicity related to the nano-based drug delivery systems is not yet explored in detail. This special issue of Drug Designing: Open Access on “Role of nano-particles in drug therapy-Drug delivery approach” gathers a collection of high quality manuscripts which is essentially helpful in developing new nano-based drug delivery systems of existing drugs or new drug molecules. Of specific interest to this theme issue are applications of nanotechnology for different drug delivery systems either for conventional delivery or targeted drug delivery.

Full article: https://www.longdom.org/open-access/role-of-nanoparticles-in-drug-therapydrug-delivery-approach-2169-0138.1000e001.pdf

Drug Designing: Open Access Journal is using Editorial Tracking System to maintain quality and transparency to the author in the peer-review process. Review processing will be performed by the editorial board members of the Journal Drug Designing: Open Access or by Reviewers (outside experts in the field). Two independent reviewer’s approval (Minimum reviewer’s approval) followed by editor approval is obligatory for acceptance of any manuscript excluding an editorial.

Editorial tracking submission: https://www.longdom.org/submissions/drug-designing-open-access.html

Nancy Ella
Editor Board
Drug Designing: Open Access
drugdesign@eclinicalsci.org