The inherent properties of albumin facilitate its effective use as a raw material to prepare a nanosized drug delivery vehicles. Because of the enhanced surface area, biocompatibility, and extended half-life of albumin nanoparticles, a number of drugs have been incorporated in albumin matrices in recent years. Furthermore, its ability to be conjugated to various receptor ligands makes albumin an ideal candidate for the increased delivery of drugs to specific sites. The present review provides an in-depth discussion of production strategies for the preparation of albumin and conjugated albumin nanoparticles and for the targeting of these formulations to specific organs and cancer cells. This review also provides insights into drug loading, release patterns, and cytotoxicity of various drug-loaded albumin nanoparticles.

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The kinetics and mechanism of interaction of periodate ion with [Co II L(H 2 O)] 2-n [L = trimethylenediaminetetraaceticacid (TMDTA)] and ethylene glycol bis(2-aminoethyl ether) N,N,N',N'-tetraaceticacid (EGTA) have been studied spectrophotometrically by following an increase in absorbance at λ max = 550 nm in acetate buffer medium as a function of pH, ionic strength, temperature, various concentration of periodate and [Co II L(H 2 O)] 2-n under pseudo-first order conditions. The experimental observations have revealed that the intermediates having sufficiently high half life are produced during the course of both the reactions which finally get converted into a corresponding [Co III L(H 2 O)] 3-n complexes as a final reaction product. The reaction is found to obey the general rate law Rate = (k 2 [IO 4 -] + k 3 [IO 4 -] 2 ) [Co II L(H 2 O)] 2-n . This rate law is consistent with a four step mechanistic scheme (vide supra) where electron transfer proceeds through an inner sphere complex formation. The value of rate constant k 2 is independent of pH over the entire pH range which suggest that unprotonated form of [Co II L(H 2 O)] 2-n is the only predominant species. The value of k 2 is invariant to ionic strength variation in both the systems. The value of k 3 is also found to be almost invariant to ionic strength in case of [Co II TMDTA(H 2 O)] 2--[IO 4 ] -system but it decreases considerably in case of [Co II EGTA(H 2 O)] 2--[IO 4 ] -system with the corresponding decrease in ionic strength. The activation parameters have been computed and given in support of proposed mechanistic scheme.

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