Smart Mesoporous Nanomaterials With Improved Therapeutic Applications

Nanomaterials have revolutionized the drug delivery and therapeutic industry due to their unique physical characteristics, which render them extremely manipulative at nano-scale. One such category of nanomaterials is mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Due to their small size and rigid honeycomb-like structure, they are highly conducive for packaging of drugs, dyes, antibodies, etc. In addition, they show excellent biocompatibility. These new generation nanomaterials can be further functionalized by incorporating surface modifications, thus increasing their acceptability as carriers for drugs and molecules. In this chapter, a brief and comprehensive review covering various aspects of the recent advancements in synthesis of mesoporous nanomaterials and post-synthesis strategies for functionalization has been presented. Further, it also sheds light on how efficiently these smart nano-carriers are involved in transport and site-specific delivery of highly toxic drugs, like chemotherapeutic agents for cancer treatment, and their biocompatibility evaluation from a biosafety point of view.

Innovative Strategies for Lipid-Based Drug Delivery

In the last decade, there has been a mounting concern in lipid-based formulations to deliver water-soluble drugs. Lipid-based drug delivery systems are one of the budding and promising technologies designed to tackle the poor bioavailability problems. This chapter stresses the different mechanisms of lipophilic drug absorption along with its advantages and limitations. It points out the different mechanisms of how lipid-based excipients and the different formulations interact with the absorption process. This review provides a comprehensive summary about the lipid formulation classification scheme (LFCS), a guide for the selection of appropriate formulation and commonly used excipients for lipid-based formulations, along with the important factors to be considered in formulation design and excipient selection. This review also focuses on the formulation of solid lipid-based formulations, important evaluation aspects, and commercial formulations available for the purpose.

Fabrication and Morphological Characterization of Barium Titanate-Based Polymeric Nanocomposite Thin Films

In this critical review chapter, the authors explain the development of composite films of Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) and Poly (methyl methacrylate) prepared by solution casting technique. Different weight percentage composition of BaTiO3 has been selected to find out the best optimization condition for further investigation and correlate the results. The structural properties have been carried out at room temperature using XRD. Efforts have been made to correlate the results with investigated XRD results of pure BaTiO3 and its composites as observed by other workers at room temperature. The flow of experimental work and microscopic images are explained.

Nanocarriers for Vaccine and Gene Delivery Application

Nanocarriers with various compositions and biological properties are frequently used systems for in-vitro/in-vivo vaccination and gene transfer. In recent years, developments in nanotechnology have focused on the design and synthesis of nanocarriers that have new properties and can be modified for gene and vaccine delivery. In the favorable results obtained from in-vivo studies performed, they increase interest in these developments and pave the way for their therapeutic use. Nanocarriers have become increasingly important because they can stabilize vaccine antigens and serve as adjuvants, with the advantage of easily transporting genetic material to the target site. In nanocarriers, the molecules involved are adsorbed to the surface or encapsulated in particulates. At the same time, surface modification of nanoparticles allows these systems to carry cargo molecules easily to target site. Among the most studied nanocarriers, lipidic and polymeric systems dendrimers, inorganic nanoparticles, cyclodextrins, cell penetration peptides, and ISCOMs are attracting attention.

Micro- and Nanosponges-Based Carriers in Advanced Drug Delivery Applications

Microsponges, a patented technology for chronotherapeutic topical drug delivery, has evolved for oral, pulmonary, and parenteral drug delivery. Various advances have been made with this carrier particle resulting in the development of novel carrier particles, namely nanosponges, nanoferrosponges, and porous microbeads. This chapter deals with the application for topical delivery of pharmaceuticals and for cosmetic purpose; potential of the delivery system for oral drug delivery, pulmonary, and parenteral purpose; and also provides an insight on the recent advances made in this field and future prospect. While many commercial products are available for topical purpose, the use of the technology for sustained/controlled/targeted delivery of pharmaceuticals/biopharmaceuticals via alternative routes is still in infancy. Extensive research inputs are required to resolve preclinical and clinical intricacies before the technology can be put into use for alternative administrative routes and for tissue engineering.

Multicomponent Solid Forms

Multicomponent systems provide the option of combining drugs at the supramolecular level. Among these, co-crystals have gained a widespread interest in pharmaceutical industry as US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently introduced new regulatory guidelines regarding this solid form that is anticipated to expand patent portfolios. Apart from co-crystals, other multi-component adducts such as co-amorphous system and eutectics are also a topic of interest for pharmaceutical researchers as they provide therapeutic advantages along with improved the aqueous solubility, dissolution, and bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs. This chapter provides a brief overview of multicomponent solid forms, their preparation methodologies, characterization, evaluation, biopharmaceutical aspects, scale up issues, and regulatory perspectives related to these solid forms. In addition, a section on future perspectives that sheds light on new therapeutic hybrids deploying drug-drug and drug-neutraceuticals combinations with improved pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical attributes is also included.

Emergence of Polymer-Lipid Hybrid Systems in Healthcare Scenario

Nanotechnology has drawn the attention of many researchers for the delivery of therapeutics used in various medical applications. Liposomes and polymeric nanoparticles represent promising nanocarriers that efficiently encapsulate drugs, which prevents their degradation along with the control and sustained drug release. Despite the many advantages of these formulations, some of the drawbacks associated with them limit their application to a certain extent. Therefore, there is need for a novel nanocarrier that possesses all of their individual advantages and excludes their drawbacks. Currently, researchers are focused on developing a novel platform that is a hybrid of a polymeric and liposomal-based carrier that combines the peculiarity of both and excludes their shortcomings. Lipid hybrid polymer nanoparticles (LPNs) contain the hydrophobic biodegradable polymeric core surrounded by a lipid layer for intensification of biocompatibility. This chapter includes an introduction of LPNs along with their advantages, composition, and method of preparation.

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles

Integration of nanotechnology and biomedicine has offered great opportunities for the development of nanoscaled therapeutic platforms. Amongst various nanocarriers, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) is one of the most developed and promising inorganic materials-based drug delivery system for clinical translations due to their simple composition and nanoporous structure. MSNs possess unique structural features, for example, well-defined morphology, large surface areas, uniform size, controllable structure, flexible pore volume, tunable pore sizes, extraordinarily high loading efficiency, and excellent biocompatibility. Progress in structure control and functionalization may endow MSNs with functionalities that enable medical applications of these integrated nanoparticles such as molecularly targeted drug delivery, multicomponent synergistic therapy, in vivo imaging and therapeutic capability, on-demand/stimuli-responsive drug release, etc. In this chapter, the authors overview MSNs' characteristics and the scientific efforts developed till date involving drug delivery and biomedical applications.

Lipid Nanocarriers for Intracellular Delivery

Recent trends in drug delivery indicate a growing trend to utilize nanotechnology to target diseased tissues with minimal adverse effects. However, in such cases, the biggest challenge encountered by the formulator is the intracellular delivery of the actives. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical nanocarriers have proven to possess distinct advantages for intracellular delivery of therapeutics over conventional approaches. They are versatile in terms of engineering and provide attractive options to deliver encapsulated or conjugated cargoes to cellular targets. In this chapter, the authors discuss important aspects of lipid-based nanocarriers for intracellular drug targeting. The chapter provides insight of different pathways to internalize lipid nanocarriers and the physicochemical factors affecting the intracellular fate of nanocarriers. Further, the chapter provides details of different types of lipid-based nanocarriers that have been explored for intracellular delivery in infectious diseases as well as cancer.

Lipid Nanocarriers for Advanced Therapeutic Applications

Lipid nanocarriers are the mainstream of nanotechnology-based advanced healthcare systems. This field has reported extensive research activity, promising results, and market acceptability over the past few decades. This profound success of lipid nanocarriers as therapeutic delivery systems is a result of their unique properties, that is, biocompatibility and biodegradability, possible delivery by multiple routes of administration, ease of formulation and scale up, amicable dosage form development, enhanced stability, bioavailability, and possible drug targeting. The chapter aims to give a detailed overview of various types of lipid nanocarriers along with methods of fabrication and characterization. The chapter also describes multiple applications of lipid nanocarriers in advanced therapeutics and elaborates on the current market opportunities and future prospects.