Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 23, Issue 3, 2017

Quantum dots are semiconducting nanocrystals that exhibit extraordinary optical properties. QD have shown higher photostability compared to standard organic dye type probes. Therefore, they have been heavily explored in the biomedical field. This review will discuss the different approaches to synthesis, solubilise and functionalise QD. Their main biomedical applications in imaging and photodynamic therapy will b Read More

Crystalline and amorphous dispersions have been the focus of academic and industrial research due to their potential role in formulating poorly water-soluble drugs. This review looks at the progress made starting with crystalline carriers in the form of eutectics moving towards more complex crystalline mixtures. It also covers using glassy polymers to maintain the drug as amorphous exhibiting higher energy and entropy. How Read More

Liposomes are established drug carriers for inhalation owing to their safety and ability to provide controlled drug release in the lung. These carriers can entrap a wide range of therapeutic molecules for delivery in large volumes to the peripheral airways using medical nebulizers. Pressurized metered inhalers (pMDIs), soft mist inhalers (SMIs) and dry powder inhalers (DPIs) can deliver relatively small quantities of medication to Read More

Background: Due to its unique features, the respiratory tract had received great attention as a promising non-invasive route for drug administration to achieve both local and systemic effects. Efforts spent to tailor systems able to overcome the lung defence mechanisms and biological barriers are followed in this review. Aerodynamic diameter, morphology, lung deposition and drug release profiles are the main criteria describin Read More

Background: The brain is the most protected organ in the human body; its protective shield, relying on a complex system of cells, proteins and transporters, prevents potentially harmful substances from entering the brain from the bloodstream but, on the other hand, it also stops drugs administered via the systemic route. To improve the efficacy of pharmacological treatments, targeted drug delivery by means of polyme Read More

The pharmaceutical applications of cyclodextrins (CDs), cyclic oligosaccharides capable of including hydrophobic molecules inside their cavities, have been known for decades. Besides the solubilising and encapsulating abilities of natural and modified CDs due to the formation of inclusion complexes, there is an increasing interest in organized macrostructures based on CDs as potential drug delivery devices and gene carri Read More

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an emerging manufacturing technology for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is a low cost extrusion-based 3D printing technique that can deposit materials layer-by-layer to create solid geometries. This review article aims to provide an overview of FDM based 3D printing application in developing new drug delivery systems. The principle Read More

Background: The drug delivery of macromolecules such as proteins and peptides has become an important area of research and represents the fastest expanding share of the market for human medicines. The most common method for delivering macromolecules is parenterally. However parenteral administration of some therapeutic macromolecules has not been effective because of their rapid clearance from the body. Read More

A lot of effort has been devoted to achieving active targeting for cancer therapy in order to reach the right cells. Hence, increasingly it is being realized that active-targeted nanocarriers notably reduce off-target effects, mainly because of targeted localization in tumors and active cellular uptake. In this context, by taking advantage of the overexpression of transferrin receptors on the surface of tumor cells, transferrin-conj Read More

Background: Improvement of oral bioavailability through enhancement of dissolution for poorly soluble drugs has been a very promising approach. Recently, mesoporous silica based molecular sieves have demonstrated excellent properties to enhance the dissolution velocity of poorly water-soluble drugs. Description: Current research in this area is focused on investigating the factors influencing the drug release from these c Read More

Different types of injectable nanoparticles, including metallic nanoparticles, polymeric nanocarriers, dendrimers, liposomes, niosomes, and lipid nanoparticles, have been employed to load drugs for lung delivery. Nanoparticles used for lung delivery offer some benefits over conventional formulations, including increased solubility, enhanced stability, improved epithelium permeability and bioavailability, prolonged half-life, t Read More

Nanoemulsion has the potential to overcome several disadvantages in drug formulation. Loading poor water-soluble drugs in the appropriate nanoemulsions enhances their wettability and/or solubility. Consequently, this improves their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics by different routes of administration. Associated with the optimum nanodroplets size or even combined with key components, the droplets act as a r Read More

Amphotericin B (AmB) is the drug of choice in the treatment of invasive fungal infections and visceral leishmaniasis. Although AmB has a higher selectivity for ergosterol (present in fungi and Leishmania spp. membrane) than for cholesterol, mammalian cells are affected by AmB, mainly in its oligomeric aggregated form, resulting in side effects, especially nephrotoxicity. The development of nanotechnology-based drug delivery Read More

Background: Cyclodextrins (CDs), as one type of the novel pharmaceutical excipients, have been widely used in drug delivery and pharmaceutical industry. Over the past decades, a large amount of molecular modeling studies in CDs were reported for profound understanding of structural, dynamic and energetic features of CDs systems. Thus, this review is focused on qualitative and quantitative analysis of research outputs Read More