Applications of polyhydroxyalkanoates and their metabolites as drug carriers

Abstract

Drug delivery systems based on biodegradable biomaterials have proved attractive to improve their efficacy. Biopolymers such as Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have the potential to be used as materials for preparing nanoparticles as drug carriers. This review describes the recent developments in drug delivery systems based on PHAs derived from microbial fermentations. Various strategies for the synthesis of microspheres, encapsulations, nano-constructs, have been presented, with their potential applications in medical domain.