Nanoparticles for Pharmaceutical Applications

Nanoparticles for Pharmaceutical Applications deals with emerging new technologies for developing customized solutions for drug delivery systems. The drug delivery systems should positively impact the rate of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of the drug or other related chemical substances in the body. In addition, the drug delivery system should allow the drug to bind to its target receptor and influence that receptor s signaling and activity. Drug delivery materials should be compatible, easy to bind with a particular drug, and able to degrade into fragments after use that are either metabolized or driven out via normal excretory routes. The book emphasizes the material-based technologies in the area of drug delivery that include solid lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, polysaccharides, polyesters, micelles, etc. The different route-based delivery systems such as oral, pulmonary, ocular, dermal, etc. are discussed. The focus is also on certain diseases to which these technologies can be applied for maximum benefits: cancer, tuberculosis, restenosis, etc. The topics also include gene and vaccine delivery as well as safety concerns of these nano-scale materials. The 22 state-of-the-art review chapters are written by world-renowned scientists working in the field of nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems.