Microspheres for local drug delivery in bone joints

摘要

Bone joints are the junctions between bones in the body which link the skeletal system into a functional whole. A joint may be the connecting point between two or more bones. Overtime, as people age or due to lifestyle or genetic factors, they may experience diseases and pains in the joints. Conventional treatment options for bone and joint diseases, pain and inflammation have a number of drawbacks that obstruct optimal treatment of the disease. Various other treatment methods and formulations have been investigated to remove these drawbacks. Microspheres are one of the most interesting and attractive approaches to eliminate these limitations. In recent years, prolonged release microspheres have been developed and explored as a viable method for delivery of drugs to the bones and joints. Local delivery of drugs to the affected bone or joint offers many advantages over traditional treatment methods including- better therapeutic response, lesser required dose of drug, lesser chances of wastage of drug, better absorption of drug in the diseased site, lesser chances of side effects etc. The objective of this review is to explore the field of drug delivery to bone joints, various methods of development of drug-loaded microspheres, factors that influence the release of drug from the microspheres as well as the types of hurdles faced in their preparation.