Critical Reviews in Therapeutic Drug Carrier Systems

Cyclosporine (CsA) stays the most intangible molecule holding a good history for treating several ophthalmic conditions and it even attributes to multiple off-label uses. Topical delivery of CsA is the most preferred route but owing to the molecule's physicochemical properties such as poor aqueous solubility and high molecular weight as well as its encounter with multiple barriers of eye causes hindrance for proper delivery of the molecule to the site of action. However, Restasis®, Cequa®, and Verkazia® are the marketed formulations that have been approved by U...

The exosome is a naturally derived nanostructured lipid vesicle that ranges from 40-100 nm in size and is utilized to transport drugs, and biological macromolecules, including therapeutic RNA and proteins. It is a membrane vesicle actively released by cells to transport cellular components with a purpose for biological events. The conventional isolation technique has several drawbacks, including low integrity, low purity, long processing time, and sample preparation. Therefore, microfluidic technologies are more widely accepted for the isolation of pure exosomes, but due to cost and expertise requirements, this technology is also facing challenges...

Treatments for late-stage prostate cancer (CaP) have not been very successful. Frequently, advanced CaP progresses to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), with 50#37;-70% of patients developing bone metastases. CaP with bone metastasis-associated clinical complications and treatment resistance presents major clinical challenges. Recent advances in the formulation of clinically applicable nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted attention in the fields of medicine and pharmacology with applications to cancer and infectious and neurological diseases...

Over the past decade, lignin-based nanomaterials have astonishingly gained tremendous popularity among researchers worldwide for utilization in various high-value added fields. However, the copiousness of published articles suggests that lignin-based nanomaterials are currently being given the most priority as drug delivery vehicles or drug carriers. A large number of reports have been published during the past decade reporting successful application of lignin nanoparticles as drug carrier, not only for drugs administered in human but also for drugs used in plants such as pesticides, fungicides, etc...

Osteoporosis (OP) is a bone-metabolic disorder, causing micro-architecture degeneration and a decrease in bone density. Nutritional deficiency, i.e., calcium, vitamin D, and hormonal imbalances are the primary cause for the occurrence of OP. Although conventional diagnostic techniques and therapies are available and found to be effective only at a later stage, though still lack prevention strategies. Thus, the patients tend to suffer incidence of fractures and many difficulties to manage their day-to-day activities at an elderly stage...

There are a large number of pharmaceutical products in the market containing heterocyclic compounds. Heterocyclic compounds are explored in the field of therapeutics due to their unique physicochemical and pharmacological properties. A large number of heterocyclic compounds existing in the pharmaceutical market have marked anticancer activity and many of them are under research investigations to treat different types of cancers. Anticancer heterocyclic compounds show many shortcomings such as other anticancer agents in bioavailability and site-specific drug delivery resulting in toxicity and decreased patient compliance...

Quality by design (QbD) has recently fascinated researchers for utilizing it in various arenas of pharma trends. By overcoming the conventional process, QbD prevents the risk of errors caused by the 'guess and by god approach'. This framework fosters profound knowledge of product and process quality by implying sound science and risk assessment strategies. The virtue of QbD leads to the collaborative contribution to pharmaceutical industrialists and satisfies the regulatory bodies. Additionally, leading to rapid production, saves time and expenditure, tremendous versatility, provides immense knowledge, improves robustness, higher consistency, reduces user's dilemma, decreases certainty of failure, declining inter-batch variation in pharmaceutical development...

This work is an effort to first introduce plant-based gums and discussing their drug delivery applications. The composition of these plant gums and their major characteristics, which make them suitable as pharmaceutical excipients are also described in detail. The various modifications methods such as physical and chemical modifications of gums and polysaccharides have been discussed along with their applications in different fields. Consequently, plant-based gums modification such as etherification and grafting is attracting much scientific attention to satisfy industrial demand...

Unmodified nanocarriers used in the chemotherapy of cancers and various infectious diseases exhibit prolonged blood circulation time, prevent enzymatic degradation and increase chemical stability of encapsulated therapeutics. However, off-target effect and lack of specificity associated with unmodified nanoparticles (NPs) limit their applications in the health care system. Mannose (Man) receptors with significant overexpression on antigen-presenting cells and macrophages are among the most admired targets for cancer and anti-infective therapeutics...

Anti-cancer drugs are mostly limited in their use due to poor physicochemical and biopharmaceutical properties. Their lower solubility is the most common hurdle limiting their use upto their potential. In the recent years, the cyclodextrin (CD) complexation have emerged as existing approach to overcome the problem of poor solubility. CD-based nano-technological approaches are safe, stable and showed well in vivo tolerance and greater payload for encapsulation of hydrophobic drugs for the targeted delivery. They are generally chosen due to their ability to get self-assembled to form liposomes, nanoparticles, micelles and nano-sponges etc...

Peptides are emerging as a promising candidate for therapeutic as well as diagnostic applications within the domain of clinical and scientific research. They are recognized for being highly selective, sensitive and efficacious with minimal or no toxicity. Small size, non-immunogenicity, ease of synthesis and huge scope of modification are some of the well-established properties of peptides, which make them an excellent alternative to not only small drug molecules but also to protein-based biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies and enzymes...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer related deaths in the United States. However, more than half of all incidence and mortality are caused by risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol consumption, inactivity, and excess weight, and thus can be protected. CRC morbidity and mortality can also be reduced by proper screening and monitoring. Over the last few years the amalgamation of nanotechnology with healthcare system has brought about the potential to administer the delivery of certain therapeutic drugs to cancer cells without affecting normal tissues...

Captopril is an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor that prevents angiotensin I (ATI) from being converted to angiotensin II (ATII). However, it offers certain limitations like instability, dose dumping and burst release due to its usage in the native state. In the last two decades, different polymers and excipients have been used to make captopril more accessible and well-accepted. The present work discusses the efforts made by various scientists so far to make the oral administration of captopril more acceptable by overcoming its limitations...

Natural polymers have received more attention because of their advantages over synthetic polymers such as abundant availability, low cost, biodegradability and non-toxicity. However, natural polymers suffer some limitations such as drop-in viscosity upon storage, uncontrolled hydration, solubility, inability to perform under high temperature and pressure (thermal stability), etc. In many instances above mentioned drawbacks of natural polymers limits their applications in drug delivery systems. Grafting of natural polymer leads to improved properties and characteristics of backbones of macromolecules such as improvement in gel strength, swelling index, mucoadhesion, drug targeting and drug release profile...

Breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in women and the major cause of worldwide cancer-related deaths among women. Various treatment strategies including conventional chemotherapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy, gene silencing and deliberately engineered nanomaterials for receptor mediated targeted delivery of anticancer drugs, antibodies, and small-molecule inhibitors, etc are being investigated by scientists to combat breast cancer. Smartly designed/fabricated nanomaterials are being explored to target breast cancer through enhanced permeation and retention effect; and also, being conjugated with suitable ligand for receptor-mediated endocytosis to target breast cancer for diagnostic, and theranostic applications...

The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) forms of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) remains a major health challenge in this advanced era of health science. The longer therapy and higher dose of anti-tubercular drugs (ATDs) increases the patient incompliance at its peak levels of intolerance as well as toxicity. In the recent decades, nanoparticulate drug delivery has emerged as an excellent venture for the effective treatment of cancer, infectious diseases, brain as well as TB...

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a pioneering technology that has gained increased popularity in the fields of tissue engineering, drug design, drug delivery systems and biomedical devices. Thus, it enables us to explore this technique for fabricating 3D-printed catheters. Owing to its enhanced productivity and cost-efficiency, this technique can be utilized to fabricate any material for manufacturing or designing catheters with antimicrobial properties. From 1930s, Foley's catheter had been widely used to drain the urinary bladder of patients with impaired bladder function...

The aqueous solubility of active drug moiety plays a crucial role in the development of an efficacious formulation. The poor aqueous solubility of BCS class II and IV drugs is manifested as poor bioavailability. Preparation of cyclodextrin inclusion complex to improve the solubility, stability, and bioavailability is a well-established technique. The latest trend in cyclodextrin research is focused on ternary complexes wherein an auxiliary agent such as water-soluble polymers, organic ions, metals, or amino acids is incorporated in the inclusion complex...

Wound management is an unmet therapeutic challenge and a global healthcare burden. Current treatment strategies provide limited efficiency in wound management, thus undergoing constant evolution in the treatment approaches. As wound healing is a complex physiological process involving precise synchronization of various phases like hemostasis, inflammation and remodelling, which necessitates innovative treatment strategies. Nanotechnology platforms like polymeric nanofibers (NFs) offer a promising solution for wound management...

To achieve optimal immunogenicity, particulates present a promising vehicle for antigen delivery and have the potential to skew immune response. Particulate vaccine offers several advantages including targeting of antigen to sentinel cells, protection from degradation, sustained release, and itself acts an adjuvant mimics viral structure. Adjuvant presence is vital in overcoming the poor immunogenicity of vaccines, e.g., subunit vaccines. Adjuvants have antigen dose sparing potential and provide danger signals to alert the immune system...