Intranasal Route an Alternative Approach for Systemic Drug Delivery: Recent Strategies and Progression

Intranasal administration has proven to be a viable alternative for local and systemic delivery of varied therapeutic agents. This route has been potentially researched for delivering polar compounds, vaccines, hormones, peptides, proteins, etc. Being non-invasive and painless with a fast onset of action (both local and systemic), intranasal has become an ideal route for medication to children. This route is specifically employed for the delivery of drugs that are unstable in GIT, which gets significantly degraded or metabolized by the first-pass effect. The nasal route's high absorption and permeability profile has led to its exploration as a substitute for parenteral delivery. This paper reviews the feasibility and potentials of intranasal administration, discussing its benefits, drawbacks, market analysis, factors affecting nasal drug delivery system, conventional and novel strategies (polymeric and nano-carrier-based delivery systems) to improve nasal absorption and its clinical management of varied systemic and topical disorders viz. neurodegenerative, pulmonary, microbial, neoplastic, etc.