Nanotechnology advances in controlled drug delivery systems

Nanotechnology advances in drug delivery deal with the development of synthetic nanometer sized targeted delivery systems for therapeutic agents of increased complexity, and biologically active drug products. Therapeutic systems in this class are up to a million times larger than classical drugs like aspirin. Being larger there is more scope for diversity and complexity, which makes their protection much more challenging and their delivery more difficult. Their increased complexity however, gives these systems the unique power to tackle more challenging diseases. Targeted delivery systems can have multiple functions, a key one being their ability to recognize specific molecules which can be located either on the membrane of target cells, or in specific compartments within the cell. A challenging objective of targeted drug delivery is the development of innovative multidisciplinary approaches for the design, synthesis and functionalization of novel nanocarriers for targeted delivery of protein/peptide (P/P) drugs via oral, pulmonary and nasal administration routes as well as the fabrication of “smart” miniaturized drug delivery devices able to release a variety of drugs on demand. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)