How can we fine-tune nanoparticles to improve drug delivery?

摘要

"Multiple attempts have been taken to fine-tune nanoparticles to improve its therapeutic efficiency of drug deliveries, including utilizing conjugated targeting ligands, rational design of reliable linkers between drug and carriers, and integration of the nanoparticle and drugs into different stimulus—response systems." Drug-delivery systems aim to administer pharmaceutical compounds at a set rate for a preordained length of time and to achieve a therapeutic effect in a continued manner. Major advances have been made in the area of drug delivery systems since the early 1960s, and they have advanced from macroscopic controlled drug delivery devices and implants, to the current era of nanotechnol-ogy we are experiencing today [1]. Nano-therapeutic delivery systems present themselves as one of the most promising of their kind. As a drug delivery concept in nanotech-nology, it strives to develop nanoscale materials for selective infusion of therapeutic drugs or pharmaceutical compounds to specific cells. It consists of submicron-sized colloidal particles such as nanoparticles, micelles, lipo-somes and vesicles [2]. These sophisticated materials have shown compelling results in their ability to transport a diverse range of pharmaceutical compounds to various parts of the human system including cells, tissues and organs for sustained periods of time [3-5]. Many biological processes in our bodies rely heavily on subcellular units that exist in the nanoscale (i.e., virus, ribosomes and molecular motors). Therefore, nanoparticles in sufficiently small size could allow for direct contact with subcellular compartments which provide an opportunity to interfere with intracellular processes [6].