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Review
. 2022 Dec 19;12(24):4494.
doi: 10.3390/nano12244494.

Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery: From History to Therapeutic Applications

Obaid Afzal  1 , Abdulmalik S A Altamimi  1 , Muhammad Shahid Nadeem  2 , Sami I Alzarea  3 , Waleed Hassan Almalki  4 , Aqsa Tariq  5 , Bismillah Mubeen  5 , Bibi Nazia Murtaza  6 , Saima Iftikhar  7 , Naeem Riaz  8 , Imran Kazmi  2
Affiliations
Review

Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery: From History to Therapeutic Applications

Obaid Afzal et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

Current research into the role of engineered nanoparticles in drug delivery systems (DDSs) for medical purposes has developed numerous fascinating nanocarriers. This paper reviews the various conventionally used and current used carriage system to deliver drugs. Due to numerous drawbacks of conventional DDSs, nanocarriers have gained immense interest. Nanocarriers like polymeric nanoparticles, mesoporous nanoparticles, nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, liposomes, metallic nanoparticles, nanomedicine, and engineered nanomaterials are used as carriage systems for targeted delivery at specific sites of affected areas in the body. Nanomedicine has rapidly grown to treat certain diseases like brain cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and many others. These nanomedicines can improve drug bioavailability and drug absorption time, reduce release time, eliminate drug aggregation, and enhance drug solubility in the blood. Nanomedicine has introduced a new era for drug carriage by refining the therapeutic directories of the energetic pharmaceutical elements engineered within nanoparticles. In this context, the vital information on engineered nanoparticles was reviewed and conferred towards the role in drug carriage systems to treat many ailments. All these nanocarriers were tested in vitro and in vivo. In the coming years, nanomedicines can improve human health more effectively by adding more advanced techniques into the drug delivery system.

Keywords: drug delivery; nanomedicine; nanoparticles; personalized medicine; therapeutics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of how traditional medications were administered without the use of nanocarriers and harm was done to healthy organs or cells. In contrast, modern procedures use nanomedicines to transport medications to specific parts of the body.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Aids of using nanomedicine platform for delivering drugs to the tumor complex.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Diagram showing the mechanism of targeted drug delivery across BBB in brain microenvironment. Piperine loaded on SLNPs is injected intraperitonially, across BBB efferently to stop plaque formation. Polymeric nanoparticles are used for Tacrine delivery inside the brain, folic acid are loaded on the liposomes crossing blood–brain barrier to treat Alzheimer’s disease, while nanoemulsions and SLNP are loaded with drugs used to deliver medicines inside the targeted brain area to cure Parkinson’s disease.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of mechanism of drug letrozol loaded on solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and folic acid coupled to SLNs. The whole carrier was delivered inside the animal rat model to treat effects on breast cancer cell lines. Inside cytoplasm, biodegradation occurred, as well as drug release and caspases’ activation inside nucleus, causing apoptosis.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mechanism of nanomedicine delivery in bone diseases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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