Current Status and Perspectives in Mucosal Drug Delivery of Nanotherapeutic Systems

Abstract

Currently, nanoparticulate therapeutic systems are gaining importance and are capable of being delivered through various routes of administration while facilitating both systemic and local drug delivery. Delivering therapeutics to mucosal surfaces of various regions in the body is of special interest because it provides the ability to treat a wide range of disorders. However, due to the mucosal barriers encountered at respective organs/body cavities, it is challenging to deliver therapeutics to mucosal area. Hence, drugs demand certain carrier systems to overcome the barrier and facilitate drug delivery to the site of action. There are several strategies which enable efficient mucosal delivery of nanoparticles (NPs) and enhance the residence time of those systems at the mucosal site. Even though numerous approaches have been used with nanoparticle delivery systems, currently available strategies require further improvements to accomplish mucosal drug delivery. There is still a large gap in understanding the correlation between mucus clearance rates and NPs’ performance. This chapter summarizes various approaches utilized for enhancing mucosal delivery of nanoparticulate systems and strategies to evade mucus clearance.