The recent advance in nanotechnology has lead to the development of targeted drug delivery system. However, targeting a molecule to a particular site using a drug delivery system effectively requires a specialized drug delivery system. The discovery of nanosponge has become a significant step in overcoming certain problems such as drug toxicity, poor bioavailability and release of drug in a predictable fashion as they can accommodate both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drug. Nanosponges exhibit a porous structure in nature which has the unique ability to entrap the drug moieties and offers a merit of desire release. Nanosponges are tiny sponges that can circulate in the body to reach the specific site and binds on the surface to release the drug in a controlled and predictable manner. Nanosponges can be formulated by crosslinking of cyclodextrine with carbonyl or di-carboxylate (Crosslinkers). Nano sponge’s technology has been explored widely for the delivery of drugs for oral administration, topical administration, and parental administration. Nanosponges can also serve as an effective carrier for enzyme, proteins, vaccine and antibodies. The present review highlights the method of preparation, characterization and their potential application in drug delivery system.

Alginate and chitosan are commonly used polymers in modifying the drug release. These two polymers can be used together or separately to form drug loaded modified release beads. The ionotropic gelation method and a slight modification in various ways are used to prepare these beads of different characteristics. The bead characteristics like morphology, buoyancy, swelling nature, drug entrapment efficiency, adsorption, and release behavior are of importance. Also the therapeutic uses of the different modifications of the beads can be immense for the drugs which have low water solubility, short biological half life, require organ specific targeting, and are proteineous in nature.

H igh molecular weight hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and biodegradable pectin were used for coating the pellets containing curcumin, to be released in the colon. The prepared pellets were free flowing. in vitro release of curcumin remained intact up to pH 3.0, disintegrated at pH 7.2, and released up to 12 hours. The ideal batch (1:3) showed minimum release at pH 1.2 and maximum release at pH 6.8, and an increased amount of curcumin in the blood stream(1.287 μg/ml) was achieved when compared with pure curcumin (0.5 μg/ml). The drug release was retarded by the high concentration and greater thickness of the coating of HPMC on the pellets. Release kinetics of the preparation shows a non-Fickian or anamolous diffusion or matrix erosion.

The research on chronotherapy has garnered interest from scientists to understand circadian rhythms and their applications in the biological system. The area of chronotherapeutics covers essential information which is helpful to move forward and solve entanglements in current drug delivery technology. Chronotherapy is the conveying drugs in the body at the target site by maintaining perfect synchronicity with circadian rhythms. The main aim of the current rhythmic research is to formulate and design a therapeutic novel system which can deliver the drug in a desired way inside the body to treat various rhythmic diseases according to their occurrence. Drug release from an ideal chronotherapeutic system should be rapid, and the release of drug from the delivery system should also be complete after a specific or defined lag time period. Recently, scientists are involved in developing chronotherapeutic drug delivery system to treat chronological diseases such as single and multiple units using an erodible, soluble or insoluble polymer coating, and stimuli regulated drug delivery systems. In this review, we focus on the elaboration of the concept of chronotherapy, main challenges ahead during its development process, current approaches and its future applications in drug delivery in the treatment of circadian rhythmic diseases.

Objective: The main aim of the present investigation was to formulate and evaluate microbeads of zaltoprofen. Zaltoprofen, a BCS class II drug used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Zaltoprofen has a shorter half-life of 2.8 h, and it is administered at a dose of 80 mg thrice a day. By encapsulating the drug into microbeads, it is expected that the release of the drug would be prolonged and thereby, it reduces the frequency of administration and better patient compliance may be improved. Methods: Gellan-chitosan and calcium chloride beads of zaltoprofen were prepared employing ionotropic gelation method using different concentrations of gellan, chitosan, calcium chloride and zaltoprofen. The microbeads were evaluated for its various Physico-chemical parameters such as particle size determination, drug entrapment efficiency, infrared spectroscopy study, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, in vitro drug release study and in vivo oral bioavailability studies. Results: The results suggested that the batch FG-II exhibited higher drug entrapment efficiency (72.42±0.013), a sustained drug release for a period of 24 h. The pharmacokinetic profile of the drug from microbeads exhibited an enhanced oral bioavailability (2.4 times higher than that of pure drug), lower elimination rate (1.14 times lesser for the drug in microbeads) with prolonged elimination half-life (2.561 times higher than pure zaltoprofen). Conclusion: Zaltoprofen entrapped microbeads demonstrated as a better delivery system for the sustained release of drug and also to circumvent the drawbacks associated with conventional therapy.