Advances in Spray Drying Technology for Nanoparticle Formation

Abstract

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), the second generation of SLNs, are colloidal drug carrier systems that can be used for controlled drug delivery via various administration routes. They introduce various advantages over traditional dosage forms and their colloidal counterparts. SLN and NLC products are available in the market of the European community, and lipid nanotechnology has been increasingly attracted by the industry. Moreover, studies on lipid nanoparticles have been focused on targeting of drugs to the specific sites of the body, thus surface modification and treatment of SLN and NLC in the last decades. Naturally, several parameters must be taken into consideration for design of well-performing formulations, which have a long-term stability. A lot of analytical methods, which give scientists extensive informations, are essential for characterization of SLN and NLC. Investigation of factors affecting their physicochemical properties and common techniques used for their characterization will be introduced in this chapter. Determination methods of particle size, particle charge, and surface characteristics, crystallographic and structural investigations, and imaging of SLN and NLC will be discussed. In vivo and in vitro experiments will also be summarized to describe future direction of researches.