targeted drug delivery

In targeted drug delivery to specific sites is significant problem which is being faced by many researchers. The development of new and complex molecules nanosponges have potential to solve these problem. Nanosponges are tiny sponges with a size of about a virus. Which can be filled with a wide variety of drugs and complex molecules. These tiny sponges can circulate around the body until they encounter the specific target site and stick on the surface and begin to release the drugs in a controlled and predictable manner. Because nanosponges play a vital role in targeting drug delivery in a controlled released rate. Nanosponges is a novel and emerging technology which offers targeted and controlled drug delivery for topical as well as oral use. A large variety of substances or drugs can be encapsulated in to the wide cavities of nanosponges. Another important features of these nanosponges is their water soluble. The nanosponges carrying both lipophilic and hydrophilic substances and mostly improving the solubility of poorly water soluble drugs. In this review article application of nanosponges, method of preparation, evaluation parameter and added recent patent have been discussed.

  Dendrimers are a new class of polymeric materials. They are highly branched, monodisperse macromolecules. The structure of these materials has a great impact on their physical and chemical properties. As a result of their unique behaviour dendrimers are suitable for a wide range of targeted drug delivery, controlled drug delivery, gene delivery and industrial applications. The paper gives a concise review of dendrimers physico-chemical properties, types, synthetic pathway & their possible use in various aspects of research, technology and treatment of disease. Key words: Dendrimer, targeted drug delivery, gene delivery, dendrimer synthesis, dendrimer properties, dendrimer types.

  The Pulmonary route has been conventionally used to treat diseases of the respiratory tract and also non-respiratory tract. The significant research work from the last two decades have exposed that in addition to treating local diseases, a wide range of systemic diseases can be treated by delivering drugs to the lungs. In general inhalable formulations of various drugs have been developed to treat the systemic diseases via the lungs. But the problem with those inhalable formulations is they need repeated doses of drug to control the disease condition, since the inhaled drug cleared rapidly. Therefore new technologies have been investigated, where inhaled particles are capable of controlled release of drug from the lungs. In those nanotechnology based drug delivery systems are being developed as a tremendous field. Nano refers to particles size range of 1-1000nm. An important feature of these technologies is the large geometric size of the particles than normal aerosol solutions, which makes it difficult for the lung macrophages to clear these particles. Therefore it results in longer residence times for the particles in the lungs after delivering the drug to the lungs. The present review discusses about the anatomy and structure of lungs, various conventional formulations for pulmonary delivery, and the various colloidal carriers like liposomes, dendrimers, nanoparticles, which involves the delivering of drugs to lungs.   Key words: targeted drug delivery, pulmonary drug delivery, nanotechnology, colloidal particles.