Critical Reviews in Therapeutic Drug Carrier Systems最新文献

The parenteral route of administration is preferred over the oral route for treatment of many chronic and life-threatening diseases due to better patient compliance. Long-acting injectables/depot delivery systems are formulations intended for prolonged/sustained drug release over a long period of time ranging from a few days to months. Depot delivery systems enhance product quality by decreasing dosing frequency, simplifying the drug regimen. Parenteral depots reduce the relapse rate of disease and the maintenance phase of therapy, hence improving efficacy and treatment adherence. However, despite being extensively explored in the last seventy years, only a few depot products have been marketed or have reached commercial viability. The introduction of long-acting injectables of any drug took 9 to 10 years after approval of its oral formulation. Mainly the market has been conquered by long-acting injectables for antipsychotic, substance abuse, and hormonal therapy drugs. This article focuses on the preparation of long-acting injectables with special emphasis on challenges associated with formulation. The evolution and current global market trend of various depot formulations are also discussed. Insight is provided into the promising future of long-acting injectables of protein-based drugs as well as multidrug therapy, along with potential uses in the treatment of chronic diseases like HIV, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's.

Therapeutics and biotherapeutics-based fabrication of nanoparticles has fascinated scientists since the past two decades and exciting challenges have been surmounted. Particular interest has been paid to the exploitation of functionalized nanocarriers in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) using nasal route. Development of various material-based nanocarriers is a common approach to obtain advanced drug delivery systems possessing the ability to follow intranasal (IN) route for brain targeting, which would ultimately ameliorate the effect of AD. This review highlights the various pathological theories for AD along with their controversies. This work intends to provide a thorough, up-to-date, and holistic discussion on various pathways for nose-to-brain delivery and different formulation factors impacting on nasal absorption. The various material properties and their engineered nanocarriers as a smart delivery system, including synergistic effect of therapeutic/biotherapeutic agent in IN delivery as well as in AD therapy have been discussed. This review also emphasizes toxicity, especially neurotoxicity concerns pertaining to drug delivery systems.

Vaccination plays a crucial role in the control of infectious diseases, but often fails to eradicate certain refractory infections for which the development of an effective vaccine is eagerly desired but elusive. In many cases, failure in developing a vaccine is attributed to the inability of the candidates, especially among subunit vaccines, to evoke appropriate immuno-responses for establishing humoral as well as cellular immunity. In past decades, nanoparticles (NPs) sizing from 10 to 500 nm, such as liposomes, inorganic or metal NPs (iNPs), viruslike particles (VLPs), emulsions, immune-stimulating complexes (ISCOMs), and polymeric NPs, have been developed a potential carrier for vaccines to stabilize and deliver the adjuvant and antigens, thus forming proper vaccine adjuvant-delivery systems (VADSs). In particular, many NPs are rationally designed according to distinct cellular features and, therefore, are specifically engineered with functional materials so that they can deliver vaccine ingredients to target antigen-presenting cells (APCs) while directing immunoresponses against antigens along a specific Th1 (T helper type 1) and/or Th2 pathway to establish robust cellular and antibody immunity. In addition, a variety of NP-based VADSs are suitable for mucosal immunization, which contributes to systemic and, particularly, topical immunity, thus forming a dual barrier to pathogen invasion. This paper describes different NP-based VADSs designed for delivering vaccines, and evaluates their potential in the preparation of new products that can be used for prophylaxis against pathogens via different immunization routes.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and has a 5-year life expectancy of ~8%. Currently, only a few drugs have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for pancreatic cancer treatment. Despite available drug therapy and ongoing clinical investigations, the high prevalence and mortality associated with pancreatic cancer mean that there is an unmet chemopreventive and therapeutic need. From ongoing studies with various novel formulations, it is evident that the development of smart drug delivery systems will improve delivery of drug cargo to the pancreatic target site to ensure and enhance the therapeutic/chemoprevention efficacy of existing drugs and newly designed drugs in the future. With this in view, nanotechnology is emerging as a promising avenue to enhance drug delivery to the pancreas via both passive and active targeting mechanisms. Research in this field has grown extensively over the past decade, as is evident from available scientific literature. This review summarizes the recent advances that have brought nanotechnology-based formulations to the forefront of pancreatic cancer treatment.

Cancer nanotechnology is a new field of interdisciplinary research cutting across biology, chemistry, engineering, and medicine, aiming to lead to major advances in cancer treatment. Over the past several years, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) have attracted the interest of researchers due to their ability to overcome the limitations of classic chemotherapeutics. We reviewed the most recent data on the therapeutic use of SLNs in oncology, presenting their main advantages and disadvantages, along with various production methods and different routes of administration. In accordance with these aspects, the long-term physical stability, the controlled release of the loaded drugs, and the efficient targeted delivery of drugs as methods of surpassing the pharmaceutical limitations of anticancer drugs, natural products and gene therapy have been discussed. In addition, we have also emphasized briefly the crosstalk between SLNs and the new trend in oncology, immunotherapy, as future possible antineoplastic treatment, especially in melanoma. This review highlights the potential of SLNs in providing very positive perspectives for future cancer treatment by improving the efficiency of present chemotherapy and reducing its side effects. SLNs allow targeted delivery of anticancer drugs and could improve the efficiency of current chemotherapy in neoplasia.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a debilitating condition that results in impairment of joints and ligaments and thus constrained mobility and decreased array of movement. It is a broad expression that encompasses additional 100 very diverse disorders mainly affecting joints. In the field of drug discovery, there is no well-known treatment for RA that can eradicate the disease permanently and alleviate the pain. The common non-targeted treatment approaches leads to serious side effects and systemic complications for RA patients. Therefore, targeted drug delivery systems, strategies, and diverse therapeutic approach for treatment of RA have gained increasing attention in the past few years. However, with the current understandings, researchers aim at accomplishing complete and long-lasting remission by the development of smart formulations/smart drug-delivery systems. Treatment for RA patients can be more efficient and effective utilizing these smart approaches. The present review focuses on the existing novel drug-delivery systems, strategies, and current trends in the treatment of RA.