Nanoparticle-Mediated Delivery of Therapeutic Drugs

Nanotechnology-based pharmaceutics is a fast emerging field in the diagnosis and therapy of a number of human diseases, including cancer. Nanoparticles offer a stable means to achieve targeted drug delivery to various cells and tissues. They have been investigated for drug delivery to different tumor tissues, to brain where the blood–brain barrier poses a significant problem in the delivery of effective therapeutic molecules, to ocular tissues and also for eliciting immune response via delivery of vaccines. Particularly, the small size of nanoparticles facilitates their easy access to a wide range of cells and tissues. Further, the size of nanoparticles can be controlled and their surface can be modified with desired ligands and receptors to specifically target cells of interest as well as achieve controlled drug release. Research is being carried out on numerous biological and synthetic nanoparticles. Diverse strategies are being developed to improve their stability, specificity and drug delivery efficiency. Nanoparticles have been also used in conjunction with cell-penetrating peptides for efficient drug delivery. Cell-penetrating peptides serve as efficient nanocarriers owing to their inherent ability to cross the plasma membrane barrier and deliver cargo to intracellular targets. Modification of nanoparticles with cell-penetrating peptides further increases their efficacy for increased permeation into varied cells and tissues. The current review focuses on different classes of nanoparticles and their application in the treatment of several types of diseases.