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With the growing awareness of drug-induced diseases in the last few decades, the trend of phar
maceutical research had shifted to drug targeting. The research community seems to be fascinated
with idea of delivering drugs at an optimal rate to their exact site of action. Once considered wishful
thinking, nanotechnology has made this a reality. Many drug-loaded nanostructures have already
demonstrated their superiority over their conventional counterparts. Inspired by this success, work
is ongoing to develop nanosized dosage forms for almost all the important drugs that have signifi
cant delivery problems.
However, materials employed in the fabrication of nanostructures determine their properties.
Being pharmaceutical ingredients, these materials have to meet stringent regulatory standards
of safety. Cost is also an important factor that determines the feasibility of mass production and
marketing. So stress is given to usage of easily available natural substances such as nanomaterials.
Bio-based natural polysaccharides are excellent candidate materials for these purposes. As nano
carriers, polysaccharides have greater stability in the blood as they can bypass the reticuloendo
thelial system. Further, the existence of several functional groups in their structure make them
modifiable chemically and biochemically. The presence of hydrophilic moieties in their structure,
such as carboxyl, hydroxyl, and amino groups, improves the bioavailability of the drugs by increas
ing their bioadhesion with the cells and tissues. Due to their natural origin and ease of availability,
they have been widely employed in the design of nanocarriers loaded with antimicrobial drugs.
Finally, as the most abundant material found in nature, they are much cheaper than other nanoma
terials. Hence a nanodosage form developed in the laboratory has high potential for being upgraded
to a marketed product.
All these factors have influenced us in our review of the recent advances in polysaccharide-based
nano-biocarriers in drug delivery application and we have compiled them in this book.
This book is organized to provide the most relevant and realistic information on polysaccharide
based nanocarriers for different types of drug delivery. The current state-of-the-art research has
been accumulated in 17 chapters.
To make this book reader friendly and useful, we have provided some in-depth literature. The
chapters discuss the fundamental ideas as well as the development and application of these systems
for the delivery of small molecules, proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides, and genes. We hope that
this book will meet the demands of a reference book for concerned professionals and researchers
who intend to conceptualize and develop nano delivery systems for drugs using polysaccharides as
nanomaterials.
Preparation of this book would not have been possible without the valuable contributions from
various experts in the field. We would like to thank the authors who took time from their busy
schedules and responded to our request. We deeply appreciate their timely contributions. We are
thankful to the management of the NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata-Group of Institutions and
our colleagues for their continued support. We are grateful to our family members for their con
tinuous moral support and inspiration during the preparation of this book. We are thankful to CRC
Press for extending this opportunity to us and their expert assistance. Constructive comments and
suggestions from readers in improving the quality of this book are welcome. |
