Contents

### **Preface XI**


S.A. Chime, F.C. Kenechukwu and A.A. Attama


Preface

convenience and compliance.

minimal side effects.

Nanotechnology can simply be defined as the technology at the scale of nanosize. It is the design, characterization, synthesis and application of materials, structures, devices and sys‐ tems by controlling shape and size at nanometer scale. Nanotechnology, being an interdisci‐ plinary field, has three main extensively overlapping areas: nanobiotechnology nanomaterials and nanoelectronics, which find applications in materials, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, biomimetics, environment, energy, electronics, metrology, security, robotics information technology, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, transport, and food proc‐ essing and storage. Nanotechnology in drug delivery has been manifested into nanoparti‐ cles that can have unique properties both and *in vivo* . Nanotechnology is a technique or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in hu‐ mans or animals. These technologies modify drug release profile, absorption, distribution and elimination for the benefit of improving product efficacy and safety, as well as patient

Since it was first reported in 1980, site-specific drug delivery nanocarriers have progressed greatly with the development of nanotechnology and biotechnology, especially in the antitumor field. Currently, some of the ligand peptides like RGD have become hot targeting molecules with extensive academic studies and some receptor-medicated nanocarriers are now in clinical trials. On the other hand, new approaches are needed to reduce or to avoid off target toxicities, associated with chemotherapy and their long-term residual effects. Re‐ cently, nanotechnology has been employed to enhance cancer therapy, via improving the

It is critical for the field of drug delivery from a proof of concept to a pharmaceutical prod‐ uct at the beginning of the new millennium. A successful outcome will result in a new clini‐ cal modality that represents a revolutionary approach to medicine. One immediate benefit will be to produce a continuous level of therapeutic protein, avoiding the characteristic peak and through behavior of intermittent administrations with drug carrier systems. Novel drug delivery carriers using nanotechnology will have the capability to turn genes on or off on demand, producing a therapy that can treat the disease rather than the symptoms and with

The aim of this book was to gather all results coming from very fundamental studies. Again, this will allow to gain a more general view of the various drug carrier systems that can pre‐ pare using nanotechnology and apply, along with the methodologies necessary to design, develop and characterize them. The reader will be introduced to various aspects of the fun‐ damentals of nanotechnology based drug delivery systems and the application of these sys‐

bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of anti-cancer agents.

