Drug delivery by electroporation: Review

Abstract

Drug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Most common routes of administration include the preferred non-invasive peroral (through the mouth), topical (skin), transmucosal (nasal, buccal/sublingual, vaginal, ocular and rectal) and inhalation routes. Current effort in the area of drug delivery include the development of targeted delivery in which the drug is only active in the target area of the body (for example, in cancerous tissues) and sustained release formulations in which the drug is released over a period of time in a controlled manner from a formulation. This is achieved by combining electroporation with the input of drugs at a location. This paper reviews the process of electroporation and then further discusses the electrochemotherapy, one of the most upcoming application of electroporation in biotechnology. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.