**Author details**

systems via covalent conjugation compared to the free drug. Thus, it implies that covalently conjugated drug-nano/micro-delivery systems have the potential to specifically target disease site; hence, it can be used to treat and manage diseases that

Drug encapsulation to nano/micro-delivery systems is a field in nanotechnology

that has been growing substantially over the last two decades. Specifically, the covalent conjugation of drugs to different nano/micro-delivery systems is one of the

nanocarriers are currently developed and explored for the delivery of a wide range of therapeutic agents such as peptides, small molecules, and drugs. The several advantages offered by covalently conjugating this therapeutics into nanocarriers have made them gradually more attractive. These advantages include prolonged circulation, controlled release, improved solubility, reduced immunogenicity, specific site targeting, enhanced biosafety pharmacokinetics and biodistribution, and combination or concurrent integration of therapeutics in a single carrier. Due to the great strides that have been achieved in the development of effective drug delivery systems via covalent conjugation and their immense potential, some of these conjugates are gaining entrance into the market. Therefore, it is anticipated that covalent conjugation will continue to advance to facilitate the translation of current research findings into innovative treatments for a broad range of diseases. However, it is still very important to have a comprehensive knowledge of the ideal physiochemical properties, safety, drug release rates and efficacy, pharmacokinetic behavior, and clearance kinetics of these systems before preclinical development and clinical translation. Hence, more efforts and focused research are required to address the knowledge gaps and provide desired information that can accelerate their clinical translation and application in diverse fields of biomedicine. The computational and theoretical modeling approach can also be employed to correlate and

drug encapsulation techniques that is gaining increasing attention. Various

answer certain outcomes by providing concrete design parameters.

appear to be challenging to combat.

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**8. Conclusions and future perspectives**

*Nano- and Microencapsulation - Techniques and Applications*

Victoria Fasiku<sup>1</sup> , Edith K. Amuhaya<sup>2</sup> \*, Kingo M. Rajab<sup>3</sup> and Calvin A. Omolo<sup>2</sup> \*

1 Discipline of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

2 Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

3 Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Dodoma, Dodoma, Tanzania

\*Address all correspondence to: eamuhaya@usiu.ac.ke; comolo@usiu.ac.ke

© 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.
