**Author details**

nanoparticles give good results in this sense. First, the incorporation of the active molecules into the carriers preserve the anticancer activity [9] and nanoparticles offer better performance compared with the free drug [4, 14, 56], in some cases being dose dependent [6, 8, 11]. Besides, significant improvements in the *in vivo* anticancer performance were achieved by the encapsulation of both an anticancer molecule (mycophenolate) and an antioxidant agent (quercetin) into the same hybrid nanoparticle, as quercetin prevents mycophenolate of its hepatic metabolism via the oxygenase enzymes [14]. Moreover, it was demonstrated that the *in vivo*

Taken advantage of the slow-release patterns that could be obtained with nanoparticulated systems, the development of carriers exhibiting antimicrobial and anesthetic activities are also of interest in research. Thus, the lowest values of minimum inhibitory concentrations of SLN containing polymyxin B or

amphotericin B [20, 21] with respect to the free drugs contribute to support the applicability of nanoparticles prepared by nanoprecipitation in this area. In line with this, polymeric nanoparticles containing Brazilian red propolis extract have also shown antileishmanial activity [36], and linezolid-loaded hybrid nanoparticles demonstrated their ability to be retained in biofilms optimizing their antibacterial performance [23]. Regarding the behavior of nanoparticles in anesthetic and antiinflammatory tests, tetracaine-loaded SLN exhibited prolonged antinociceptive

Finally, the possibilities to get target particles prepared by the nanoprecipitation

Nanoprecipitation is a simple, energy-efficient, and versatile method to entrap active molecules into carriers at the submicron and nanometric levels being the most common developments those oriented to obtain polymer, lipid, and hybrid particles. As the knowledge on the *in vivo* behavior of nanocarriers progresses and the need to produce them at the industrial scale demands for greater efficiency, the technique and the used starting materials have been optimized to improve the characteristics of the carriers and the control and standardization of continuous processes. In this way, sophisticated devices have been proposed to get sizes lower than 100 nm and the procedure has been refined, either through the chemical modification of polymers or through the careful definition of the work conditions,

technique have been opened from the research works of Jeannot et al. [59] and Dehaini et al. [7] who investigate hyaluronan and folate as receptors chemically

bonded to the polymer obtaining promising results for cancer therapies.

leading to particles entrapping hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules, or

the potentialities of this technique in this respect.

exhibiting a targeted performance, a positive charge on their surface, or behaviors as stealth carriers. Moreover, the hybrid nanoparticles are promising drug delivery systems where the advantages of both polymeric and lipid particles are harnessed in their design to offer major drug loadings, slow drug-release patterns, and better pharmacokinetic properties. Regardless of the type of carrier, nanoprecipitation seems to be appropriate to obtain safe particles. Even using solvents characterized by inherent toxicity, the satisfactory results achieved by safety tests support their applicability in pharmaceutics. On this basis, it is expected that research on nanoprecipitation will continue looking for innovative solutions to the challenges facing current and future medicine. Some of the findings reported by different research teams and summarized in this chapter provide valuable insights regarding

tumor treatment in mice prolongs the life of the animals [7].

*Nano- and Microencapsulation - Techniques and Applications*

effect leading to better control of pain [26].

**6. Conclusions**

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Oscar Iván Martínez-Muñoz, Luis Fernando Ospina-Giraldo and Claudia Elizabeth Mora-Huertas\* Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia

\*Address all correspondence to: cemorah@unal.edu.co

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
