Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery

Drug delivery is the study which deals with processes and methods of administering drugs and other pharmaceutical compounds to achieve the best therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Conventional administrations of drugs have several problems associated with it. The unaltered drug is given through the mouth (orally), nose (nasally) or through injection directly into the blood stream. Problems associated with these methods are poor distribution, large dosage requirements, side effects on other cells, drug degradation, cell rejection and other problems. Rather than administering the unaltered drug directly, we can change some of the drug’s properties or administer it in some other ways. Nanoparticles (called nanocarriers) show great potential as drug delivery systems. The drug or compound is altered by combining or encapsulating it with nanoparticles. How the properties are altered depends on the type, shape and size of the nanoparticles used. Improving safety efficacy ratio of drugs has been attempted using different methods such as individualizing drug therapy, dose titration, and therapeutic drug monitoring. Delivering drug at controlled rate, slow delivery, targeted delivery are also very attractive methods. It can be specialized for anticancer treatments, brain targeting, lung targeting and so on. The types of nanoparticles used are: Liposomes, solid lipids nanoparticles, dendrimers, polymers, silicon or carbon materials, and magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs) are metallic nanoparticles that are controlled by an external magnetic field after it is administered to the patient. Magnetic nanoparticles exhibit a wide variety of attributes, which make them highly promising carriers for drug delivery. They are divided into the categories of pure metals (Mn2+ etc), their alloys and oxides. Presently, only iron oxide nanoparticles (e.g.Fe2O3) are approved for use due to their favourable properties. MNPs There are many drawbacks and limitations to cur