Nanovesicles for nanomedicine: Theory and practices

Abstract

Lipid-based nanovesicles such as liposomes, niosomes, and ethosomes are now well recognized as potential candidates for drug delivery and theranostic applications. Some of them have already stepped forward from laboratory to market. The property to entrap lipophilic drugs in their bilayers and hydrophilic drugs in the aqueous milieu makes them a unique carrier for drug delivery. Delivery of drugs/diagnostics to various organs/tissues/cells via nanovesicles is considered to be a topic of long-standing interest with new challenges being posed to formulation scientists with new developments. The key challenge in this context is the physiological and pathological conditions, which make the delivery of drugs extremely difficult at the disease locus and makes their precise delivery ineffective. This chapter gives an insight into the role of novel nanovesicles in the field of drug delivery. We present an overview of the formulation and characterization and role of diverse nanovesicles. A comprehensive update about their application and current as well as potential challenges have also been discussed.