Nanopharmaceutical Advanced Delivery Systems

This book was designed for both dedicated scientists and those new to scientific research who work in the fields of health and medicine. The fresh insights in this book will enhance the knowledge of the innovative young minds of those in the field by delivering detailed informative descriptions of the latest novel modern pharmaceutical dosage forms and drug delivery systems, which will in turn be a benefit to society.

Vivek Dave Srija Sur Nikita Gupta

Vikas Jain*, Hitesh Kumar, Pallavi Chand, Sourabh Jain and Preethi S

Department of Pharmaceutics, JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, Mysuru, India

Abstract

Various nanotechnology platforms have received notable attention in the field of medical biology, including diagnostics and therapy. In addition, research and development of engineered multifunctional nanoparticles as drug carriers has stimulated exponential development of applications in medicine. Lipid nanocarriers have been a very promising tool for the delivery of various drugs/therapeutic agents associated with solubility-, bioavailability-, and stability-related issues. Lipid nanocarriers including liposomes, solid lipid-based systems, self-emulsifying drug delivery system, nanoemulsions, nanostructured lipid carriers, cubosomes and hexosomes, etc. are being very promising lipidic carriers to deliver several drugs, therapeutics nucleic acids, antibodies, proteins/peptides, or ligand targeted agents. Lipids-based nanocarriers have the benefit of having exciting physicochemical behaviors such as higher bioavailability, least toxicity, higher drug loading, greater drug solubility, improved targeting effect of drug, etc. compared to others nanocarriers. This chapter includes the challenges and hurdles in lipid nano-formulations and their application in drug delivery in various diseases. The chapter provides a brief description of advantage, types of lipid nanocarriers, their preparation method, characteristic properties, and characterization/evaluation methods including instrumentations and application in the nanopharmaceutical field.

Keywords:Crystalline mesophases, drug delivery system, liposome, lipid nanocarriers, nanostructured lipid carriers, nanoemulsions, self-emulsifying drug delivery system, solid lipid nanoparticles

Evolution and application of the nanotechnology in pharmaceutical field have brought the development of microscopic drug delivery systems, which have marked the birth of “micro age” drug delivery systems [1]. The beginning of the nano period can be dated back to the late 1970s as a result of the introduction of several nano tools known as nanoscaled medicine systems. A wide variety of colloidal drug carriers including polymer nanosphere and nano-capsules, lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, and micelles are involved in nanoscaled drug delivery systems.

Presently, the development of drugs in the industry is more difficult and challenging because of an increasing number of poorly soluble drug(s) and the lack of targeted therapies. More than 90% of the recorded compounds have water insolubilities and/or are poorly soluble, often due to low bioavailability and a wide intra- and intersubject variation and lack of dosage efficacy [2, 3]. To address these issues, drug formulators need to look for new methods and novel formulation strategies and to ensure effective treatments for vulnerable patients.

Various nanotechnology platforms have received notable attention in the field of medical biology, including diagnostics and therapy. In addition, multifunction nanoparticles as drug carriers have stimulated rapid development of medical applications. Nanoparticles also have superiorities such as increasing drug stability and preventing adverse reactions by prolonged drug release behaviors [4, 5].

Formulating drug delivery system of active compounds with poor aqueous solubility using lipid-based systems is one of the promising strategies. Lipid provides a better alternative for the delivery of various drugs that suffer from solubility-, bioavailability-, and stability-related issues. In many studies, lipid formulations have been tried to increase bioavailability and dissolution of drugs, which are water insoluble [6]. The spontaneous emulsification in aqueous media is one of the major benefits by imparting such carriers to promote delivery of poorly soluble drugs.

Various literatures reported the characteristics and essential properties, design and development, utilization, and potential applications of various lipid-based nanocarriers in drug delivery [7, 8]. The current chapter discusses various lipid-based nanocarriers such as solid-lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), vesicular nanocarriers including liposomes, nanoemulsions, self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS), and crystalline mesophases in various application pharmaceutical fields. The information on the formulation components and processing aspects has also been discussed in detail.

In the early 1990s, solid polymers in nanoparticles consisting of non-biodegradable and biodegradable polymers having size from 10 to 1000 nm with site-specific delivery feature and regulated drug release were developed. However, the major problem encountered was the higher cytotoxicity associated with these polymers [9-11]. Therefore, lipid-derived carriers emerged as a keystone for novel formulations because of its low cytotoxicity.

In the past two decades, the development of lipid-based drug carriers has received greater attention. Lipid nanoparticles offer several potential uses in the fields of drugs delivery, clinical medicine, research, and other varied sciences. Due to their unusual dimensional dependency, lipid nanoparticles provide the opportunity to develop new therapeutics. A new prototype in drug delivery for secondary and tertiary targeting can be made possible by incorporating the drug into these nanocarriers [12].

The first liposomes were introduced by Dior in 1986 to the cosmetic market. After several years, liposomes in the form of pharmaceutical products appeared in the market. As a novel carrier, liposomes were not only technically advanced but also have gained wide public interest. There are several other concepts of formulation; for example, microemulsions, nanoemulsions, and solid particles (such as microsponge) were also explored in the last two decades. Nevertheless, these nanocarriers have not been found in wide applications and have not gained any attention like liposomes.