Drug nanocrystals: Fabrication methods and promising therapeutic applications

Abstract

The drug nanocrystals (NCs) with unique physicochemical properties are now considered as a promising drug delivery system for poorly water-soluble drugs. So far >20 formulations of NCs have been approved in the market. In this review, we summarized recent advances of NCs with emphasis on their therapeutic applications based on administration route and disease states. At the end, we present a brief description of the future perspectives of NCs and their potential role as a promising drug delivery system. As a strategy for solubilization and bioavailability enhancement, the NCs have gained significant success. Besides this, the function of NCs is still far from developed. The emerging NC-based drug delivery approach would widen the applications of NCs in drug delivery and bio-medical field. Their in vitro and in vivo fate is extremely unclear; and the development of hybrid NCs with environment-sensitive fluorophores may assist to extend the scope of bio-imaging and provide better insight to their intracellular uptake kinetics, in vitro and in vivo.

Keywords: Drug nanocrystals; Intracellular uptake kinetics; Nanomedicine; Poorly soluble drugs; Therapeutic applications.