Biodegradable nanoparticles are excellent vehicle for site directed in-vivo delivery of drugs and vaccines

Abstract

Biodegradable nanoparticles (NPs) are gaining increased attention for their ability to serve as a viable carrier for site specific delivery of vaccines, genes, drugs and other biomolecules in the body. They offer enhanced biocompatibility, superior drug/vaccine encapsulation, and convenient release profiles for a number of drugs, vaccines and biomolecules to be used in a variety of applications in the field of medicine. In this manuscript, the methods of preparation of biodegradable NPs, different factors affecting optimal drug encapsulation, factors affecting drug release rates, various surface modifications of nanoparticles to enhance in-vivo circulation, distribution and multimodal functionalities along with the specific applications such as tumor targeting, oral delivery, and delivery of these particles to the central nervous system have been reviewed.

PLGA-Based Nanoparticles as Cancer Drug Delivery Systems

“…Nanoparticles are formed immediately by rapid solvent diffusion. Lastly, the solvent is removed under reduced pressure (Govender et al, 1999;Mahapatro and Singh, 2011).…”

“…The nonspecific nature of this method results in the well known side effects of chemotherapy because the cytotoxic drug attacks normal healthy cells besides its primary target and tumor cells (Tannock and Rotin, 1989;Teicher, 2000;Akbarzadeh et al, 2012a). The rationale of using nanoparticles for tumor targeting is based on: 1) NP's capability to deliver the requisite dose load of drug in the area of the tumor because of the enhanced permeability and retention effect or active targeting by ligands on the surface of NPs and 2) NP's ability to diminish the drug exposure to healthy tissues by limiting drug distribution to the target organ (Nobs et al, 2006;Mahapatro and Singh, 2011). The properties of nanoparticles as precursor of good nanomedicine are nanoparticle size, size distribution, surface morphology, surface chemistry, surface charge, surface adhesion, surface erosion, inner porosity, drug diffusivity and encapsulation efficiency, drug stability, drug release kinetics and hemodynamic (Feng, 2004;Kumari et al, 2010).…”

“…From a broader perspective in medicine, nanoparticle have been used in specific applications such as tissue engineered scaffolds and devices, site specific drug delivery systems, cancer therapy and clinical bioanalytical diagnostics and therapeutics (van Vlerken and Amiji, 2006;Vasir and Labhasetwar, 2007;Liu et al, 2007;Mahapatro and Singh, 2011).…”

“…The surface modification protected nanoparticles from being phagocytosed and eliminated from the blood vascular system after intravenous injections. (Park et al, 2009b;Mahapatro and Singh, 2011) Polymer-based nanoparticles are submicron-sized polymeric colloidal particles in which a therapeutic agent of interest can be fixed or encapsulated inside their polymeric matrix or adsorbed or conjugated onto the surface (Labhasetwar et al, 1997;Mahapatro and Singh, 2011). Polymers may be linear, branched or globular, and their size can be firmly controlled.…”

“…Langer and Folkman were the first to demonstrate the controlled release of macromolecules via polymers, which facilitated the development of antiangiogenic drug delivery systems for cancer therapy and opened up novel areas for the delivery of macromolecules (Langer and Folkman, 1976;Dinarvand et al, 2011). Polymer-based nanoparticles act as an excellent vehicle for delivery of several biomolecules, drugs, genes and vaccines to the site of interest in-vivo (Hans and Lowman, 2002;Mahapatro and Singh, 2011).…”