Continuous Nanostructures for the Controlled Release of Drugs

Abstract

The annual world wide market for controlled release of polymer systems which extends beyond drug delivery is now estimated to $60 billion and these systems are used by over 100 million people each year. It was estimated that drug delivery will play a pivotal role in approximately 40% of all pharmaceutical sales in near future. Novel methods of drug delivery will not only result in more effective and efficacious treatments but also generates new niche markets to provide greater intellectual property protection to already existing drug formulations. Recently, biodegradable electrospun polymer nanofibrous substrate as drug carrier seems to be a promising method for delivering anticancer drugs, especially in postoperative local chemotherapy. Alternatively drug release can be triggered by the environment or other external events such as changes in pH, temperature, or the presence of analyte such as glucose. In general, controlled release of polymer systems delivering drugs in the optimum dosage for long periods is to increase the efficacy of drug, reducing patient compliance. Recent research for the use of nanotechnology (nanoparticle and nanofibers) in drug delivery suggests that the technology might solve problems in the areas such as controlled release, various topical administration, gut absorption and targeted systemic delivery. This review article described the applications of polymer nanoparticles and nanofibers for loading potential drugs for the controlled release to target incurable diseases.

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“…[9][10][11][12] There are many of the herbal products and their derived constituents present in the market are: Lovastatin (anticholesterolemic), [13] paclitaxol, doxorubicin (both anticancer drugs), cyclosporine-A and tacrolimus (both immunosuppressive), [14,15] erythromycin, streptomycin, rafamycin (all antibiotics), and amphotericin-B (fungicidal). Actually, with respect to the conventional pharmaceuticals, these drugs have their existence from natural remedies.…”

Core‐Sheath Fibers for Regenerative Medicine

“…Drug delivery for tissue engineering applications has been extensively covered in published literature [16,18,27,28,[85][86][87][88][89]. Briefly, immobilization or encapsulation of drugs on scaffolds or particulates provides following advantages over the systemic administration of drug: a.…”

“…However, their short halflife, toxicity after delivery and potential for diffusion make systemic delivery unfavorable for tissue regeneration. Therefore, polymericdevice-based targeted delivery of protein has become a clamored for method for in vitro and in vivo tissue engineering applications [3,87,89,97]. Extensive literature has been published where therapeutic proteins have been either encapsulated or immobilized on single phase electrospun nanofibers [10,14,98].…”

Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems and herbal medicines: a review

“…Moreover, the ability to improve new substances, such as by increasing selectivity and efficacy, protecting against thermal-or photo-degradation, reducing side effects, and controlling the release of active constituents, before they are introduced to the market or used therapeutically, makes this approach even more attractive. [13][14][15][16] Along with advances in recent decades related to drug development, there is an urgent need for developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology that relate to the use of nanoscale materials, which, to date, have only been a focus of the cosmetics industry. Scientific advances can revolutionize, and enhance, solutions to problematic aspects of formulation preparation.…”