Usage of Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery in Cancer therapy

Abstract

Nanomaterials as drug delivery “packages” offer increased solubility and bioavailability of drugs, and when specific tissues are targeted through synthetic design the nano-package can reduce the side effects of the drug and reduce the drug dose required for therapeutic effect. In the past years, a large number of nanoparticle delivery systems have been developed including organic and inorganic materials. More recently developed nanoparticles are demonstrating the potential of these delivery systems by incorporating multifunctionallity, including targeting decoration on the package and release triggers which can be triggered by external fields. These advances have increased the efficacy of the package/drug system against the most difficult challenges in diseases such as cancer.  We provide a review of developments in drug delivery strategies focused on organic nano-packages with external triggers. Use of microfluidic flow regimes for customized manufacturing of nanoparticles is an important aspect of the field as well. The overall goal of the research at TTU is to simultaneously load drug and encapsulate the drug in a high throughput, massively-arrayed microfluidic type system using a patented Chemtor fiber technology