Engineered Nanocrystals for Poorly Soluble Drug Delivery: A Review

Abstract

Biopharmaceutics classification system class II drugs contribute to 60-70 % of the drugs with low solubility and high permeability, which are problematic for the formulation of dosage forms. Now a days, attempts have been made very extensively to overcome the problems related to the solubility of drugs in order to maximize drug bioavailability at targeted sites in the body. The oral route for pharmaceutical delivery is the most widely used and accepted of all drug delivery routes. In spite of having better therapeutic effects, many biological entities are rarely used for oral drug delivery due to the problems of poor solubility, poor permeability, and/or poor stability in the gastrointestinal environment, as well as poor oral bioavailability. In this context, nanonization of such drugs has emerged as an important tool. The industry and academics are investing a lot of effort and money in creating the nanocrystal products because drug nanocrystals are unique drug delivery platforms that plays a substantial and distinctive role in drug delivery. In the present review, we discuss the advantages and limitations of nanocrystallized drugs, stabilization techniques, special properties, methods of preparation, mechanism of action of nanocrystals in the human body. In vivo fate of nanocrystals, the products offered on the market using nanocrystal based formulations which are being developed by the various pharmaceutical companies for drug delivery, several routes of applications of the nanocrystallized drugs, role of nanocrystals in targeted drug delivery, hybrid nanocrystals for in vivo imaging, future prospectives which may be useful to conduct further nanocrystal-based scale-up research projects.