Drug delivery
hideDrug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Drug delivery technologies are patent protected formulation technologies that modify drug release profile, absorption, distribution and elimination for the benefit of improving product efficacy and safety, as well as patient convenience and compliance. Most common methods of delivery include the preferred non-invasive peroral (through the mouth), topical (skin), transmucosal (nasal, buccal/sublingual, vaginal, ocular and rectal) and inhalation routes. Many medications such as peptide and protein, antibody, vaccine and gene based drugs, in general may not be delivered using these routes because they might be susceptible to enzymatic degradation or can not be absorbed into the systemic circulation efficiently due to molecular size and charge issues to be therapeutically effective. For this reason many protein and peptide drugs have to be delivered by injection. For example, many immunizations are based on the delivery of protein drugs and are often done by injection.
Current efforts in the area of drug delivery include the development of targeted delivery in which the drug is only active in the target area of the body (for example, in cancerous tissues) and sustained release formulations in which the drug is released over a period of time in a controlled manner from a formulation. Types of sustained release formulations include liposomes, drug loaded biodegradable microspheres and drug polymer conjugates.
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News tagged with drug delivery
Spinal cord regeneration enabled by stabilizing, improving delivery of scar-degrading enzyme
Nov 02, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (5) |
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Researchers have developed an improved version of an enzyme that degrades the dense scar tissue that forms when the central nervous system is damaged. By digesting the tissue that blocks re-growth of damaged ...
Smart drug delivery system -- Gold nanocage covered with polymer (w/ Video)
Nov 01, 2009 |
5 / 5 (5) |
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In campy old movies, Lucretia Borgia swans around emptying powder from her ring into wine glasses carelessly left unattended. The poison ring is usually a confection of gold filigree holding a cabochon or ...
Nano-Scale Drug Delivery For Chemotherapy
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 31, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (12) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Going smaller could bring better results, especially when it comes to cancer-fighting drugs.
Magnetism Turns Drug Release On and Off
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Many medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and chronic pain, require medications that cannot be taken orally, but must be dosed intermittently, on an as-needed basis, over a long period of time. A few delivery techniques ...
URI research couple's method targets cancerous tumors
Oct 27, 2009 |
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Two University of Rhode Island associate professors, biophysicists Yana Reshetnyak and Oleg Andreev, have discovered a technology that can detect cancerous tumors and deliver treatment to them without the harming the healthy ...
Optimized inhaler mouthpiece design allows for more effective drug delivery
Oct 21, 2009 |
2 / 5 (1) |
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Researchers have developed an optimized mouthpiece design to aid efficient drug delivery to the lungs by reducing the amount of medication wasted as it passes through the mouthpiece of an aerosol inhaler. With current inhaler ...
Scientists Use Self-Assembly to Make Molecule-Sized Particles With Patches of Charge
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 20, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists, chemists and engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated a novel method for the controlled formation of patchy particles, using charged, self-assembling molecules ...
Blood vessel builders
Oct 13, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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Futuristic plans to grow replacement organs, bones or muscles for soldiers maimed on the battlefield or patients suffering from debilitating disease or injury won't be anything but science fiction unless new blood vessels ...
Bioengineer uses nanoparticles to target drugs
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 08, 2009 |
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Clemson bioengineer Frank Alexis is designing new ways to target drugs and reduce the chances for side effects.
Nanodiamonds Advance Anticancer Gene Therapy
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Sep 25, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Gene therapy holds promise in the treatment of cancer as well as a large number of other diseases. However, developing a scalable system for delivering genes to cells both efficiently and safely has been ...
Magnetic Nanoworms and Nanocrystals Deliver siRNA to Tumors
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Sep 23, 2009 |
not rated yet |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Small pieces of nucleic acid known as short interfering RNAs, or siRNAs, can turn off the production of specific proteins, a property that makes them one of the more promising new classes of anticancer drugs ...
Is inhaled insulin delivery still a possibility? Why has it been a commercial failure?
Sep 23, 2009 |
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The commercial failure of Exubera (Pfizer, New York, NY), the first inhaled insulin product to come to market, led other companies such as Eli Lilly-Alkermes to halt studies of similar drug delivery in development intended ...
A flash of light turns graphene into a biosensor
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Sep 23, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- Biomedical researchers suspect graphene, a novel nanomaterial made of sheets of single carbon atoms, would be useful in a variety of applications. But no one had studied the interaction between ...
Topical erectile dysfunction therapy shows promise (w/ Video)
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Sep 19, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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An innovative drug-delivery system - nanoparticles encapsulating nitric oxide or prescription drugs - shows promise for topical treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED), according to a new study by scientists ...
Using magnetism to turn drugs on and off
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Sep 18, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- Many medical conditions, such as chronic pain, cancer and diabetes, require medications that cannot be taken orally, but must be dosed intermittently, on an as-needed basis, over a long period ...
