Polymeric Drug Delivery

Carrier Based Drug Delivery is divided into three main sections that cover major carrier systems used to deliver drugs as well as DNA. The first section describes the use of liposomes and tubules as carrier systems. The eight chapters in this section report the use of stimuli-responsiveliposomes and liposome-polymer complexes in drug and DNA delivery, the application of neutral liposomes in gene transfer, and the use of niosomes in the delivery of poorly soluble drugs. The role of vesicle shape in delivery is discussed, followed by two reviews on the use of microtubules andtemplated nanotubes for the delivery and separation of bioactives.The second section is devoted to the use of polymeric micelles as targetable pharmaceutical carriers, novel therapeutics in drug delivery, and endosomolytic agents for gene delivery. The section concludes with a chapter on the use of ultrasound to improve the efficiency of polymeric micelles ascarriers.The third section presents nine chapters on the use of micro- and nanoparticulate carriers in drug delivery. These chapters address methods to prepare precise micro- and nanoparticles, the utilization of lipids in peptide and protein release, and the construction of nanocontainers, either bystabilization of liposomal templates or by layer-by-layer deposition of polymers around colloidal templates. The reduction or prevention of burst release from matrices is discussed, as well as the use of mucoadhesion and mechanical adhesion for localized nasal and peroral delivery ofactives.