Aug 2026· International Journal of Molecular Sciences· Vol 27, pp. 7265· 0 citations· 178 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This review provides a comprehensive assessment of four major nanoparticle families—polymeric carriers, lipid-based vehicles, inorganic systems, inorganic systems, and hybrid composites—focusing on how their physicochemical properties govern drug encapsulation, release behavior, and tissue compatibility.
Abstract
Conventional oral and injectable drug administration still struggles with unstable plasma levels, weak targeting, and considerable systemic toxicity, problems that become especially acute in chronic disease management. Implantable and wearable biomedical devices offer one path around these limits, yet device-only platforms continue to fall short on drug loading, release control, and protection of fragile therapeutics. Integrating nanoparticle-based biomaterials into such devices has therefore moved from a research curiosity to a serious clinical strategy. As a result, understanding the design principles, translational challenges, and clinical potential of these hybrid platforms has become increasingly important. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of four major nanoparticle families—polymeric carriers (PLGA, chitosan, and micelles), lipid-based vehicles (liposomes, SLNs, and NLCs), inorganic systems (gold, mesoporous silica, iron oxide, and calcium phosphate), and hybrid composites—focusing on how their physicochemical properties govern drug encapsulation, release behavior, and tissue compatibility. These classes are then linked to specific implantable formats such as drug-eluting stents, nano-enabled scaffolds, and reservoir depots, and to wearable formats including transdermal patches, microneedle arrays, biosensor-coupled patches, and patient-actuated devices. A dedicated section addresses stimuli-responsive release driven by pH, enzymes, temperature, and electrical or magnetic fields, alongside closed-loop platforms that pair real-time biosensing with on-demand dosing. Surface engineering strategies, ligand targeting, antifouling coatings, antimicrobial layers, and immune-modulating chemistries are also discussed, together with the central translational hurdles: long-term stability, foreign body response, scale-up, sterilization, and regulatory classification of combination products. Finally, the review outlines near-term directions, including AI-driven dosing, 4D bioprinting, biomimetic nanocarriers, gene therapy delivery, and bioresorbable electronics, that together suggest where these hybrid platforms are likely to mature next.
Overall, this review shows that nanofiber-based drug delivery systems have significant advantages over conventional dosage forms and demonstrate considerable potential for next-generation therapies and pharmaceutical products with systematic formulation optimization, standardized characterization protocols, and clinically relevant evaluation strategies.
Prachi S. Patil, Pravin Pawar· Current Nanomaterials· 0 citations
Nanotechnology has become a revolutionary technology in contemporary medicine that can provide new solutions to the inefficiency of the traditional drug delivery systems. Nanoscale properties enable precise drug targeting, controlled release, enhanced bioavailability, and reduced systemic toxicity. The review gives a general description of drug delivery systems that are based on nanotechnology, with liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, solid lipid nanoparticles, and metallic nanoparticles being the main examples of nanocarriers. Critical discussions are made of their design strategies, drug loading capacities, release mechanisms and therapeutic advantages. In addition, more recent technological developments in the areas of targeted delivery, such as ligand-mediated delivery and stimuli-responsive systems, are discussed in the treatment of various diseases in cancer, infections, and neurological conditions. Despite significant advancements, there are still issues of toxicity, stability, large-scale production, and regulatory issues, which are impediments to clinical translation. In general, the field of nanotechnology offers a potential platform in improving therapeutic efficacy and development of biomaterial-based medical applications.
Shalini Tiwari, S. Kotnala, Rohinee Bhandari et al.· Trends in Biomaterials & Art...· 0 citations
Most active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) reach their target by passive systemic distribution, so the dose required for efficacy at the lesion is set by what healthy tissue can tolerate; conventional dosage forms consequently produce pharmacokinetic profiles that oscillate between toxic peaks and sub-therapeutic troughs. Nanoparticulate carriers (liposomes, lipid nanoparticles, polymeric and inorganic systems, and biomimetic carriers) and hydrogels (natural, synthetic, supramolecular, and microgel-assembled) have emerged as the dominant strategies to address this, increasingly combined as hybrid nanoparticle–hydrogel constructs in which the gel provides locoregional retention and the nanoparticles provide cargo protection, intracellular delivery and stimuli responsiveness. Stimuli-responsive chemistries (pH, redox, enzyme, ROS, hypoxia, temperature, light, magnetic, ultrasound, glucose, and multi-stimuli logic) translate the molecular signatures of a disease into spatiotemporally controlled cargo release. This narrative review consolidates the state of the art (prioritizing 2022–2026) and departs from the conventional carrier-type survey in one respect: the literature is read along an explicit chain—disease cue, sensing chemistry, carrier architecture, release mechanism and kinetics, administration route, and clinical readiness—which exposes a variable that classification by carrier type conceals. Across all three material classes, what governs release behavior is not primarily the carrier chemistry but the identity of the released species (dissolved drug, drug from an embedded nanoparticle, an intact nanoparticle, and a matrix fragment) and the transport step that limits it. This is why power-law exponent analysis developed for dissolved drug fits particulate release poorly, why statistical goodness-of-fit cannot by itself establish a release mechanism, and why carrier class predicts clinical readiness less well than administration route and regulatory product type. Translational hurdles—CMC complexity, regulatory fragmentation, anti-PEG immunogenicity, and the structural mismatch between preclinical promise and clinical efficacy—are critically appraised in light of previously reported <1% delivery efficiency analysis. This review identifies converging strategies that could move stimuli-responsive controlled release from an aspirational outcome to a routine clinical reality.
Liposomes are spherical vesicular drug delivery systems composed of phospholipid bilayers enclosing an aqueous core, capable of encapsulating both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. Due to their structural similarity to biological membranes, excellent biocompatibility, and ability to improve drug solubility, stability, and bioavailability, liposomes have emerged as one of the most promising nanocarriers in modern drug delivery. Over the years, advancements in formulation techniques, lipid composition, and surface engineering have enabled the development of specialized systems such as PEGylated stealth liposomes, stimuli-responsive liposomes, ligand-targeted liposomes, and lipid nanoparticle-based mRNA delivery platforms. These innovations have significantly expanded their therapeutic applications in cancer therapy, antimicrobial treatment, gene delivery, vaccine development, and dermatological and ocular drug delivery. Despite their clinical success, challenges such as physical and chemical instability, rapid clearance by the mononuclear phagocyte system, large-scale manufacturing difficulties, and high production costs still limit their widespread commercialization. Ongoing research focused on smart nanocarriers, precision targeting, and advanced manufacturing technologies is expected to further enhance the clinical potential of liposomal drug delivery systems in the future.
Ashish Pal, Virendra kumar Maurya, Kamalesh Kumar· GLOBAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUT...· 0 citations
Sodium alginate, an anionic polysaccharide obtained from brown algae and a versatile biomaterial for colloidal drug delivery systems. It has good biocompatibility, biodegradability, and mucoadhesive nature. Alginate has controlled and targeted drug delivery applications. This review discusses sodium alginate–based colloidal systems and presents fundamental research with potential for clinical translation. Alginate can undergo ionic crosslinking with divalent cations such as calcium with a wide range of delivery platforms, involving nanoparticles, hydrogels, vesicular carriers, nanoemulsions, and nanocomposites. These systems protect labile drugs, peptides, and proteins from degradation, increase bioavailability, and result in sustained or stimuli‐responsive drug release. This review highlights alginate with many colloidal carriers, such as liposomes, niosomes, transferosomes, exosomes, cubosomes, dendrimers, and quantum dots, to improve its stability, targeting efficiency, and therapeutic properties. Additionally, the fabrication techniques, thiolation increase mucoadhesion, permeability, and site‐specific delivery. Methods such as microfluidics, electrospinning, and 3D bioprinting show precise control over particle size and drug‐loading efficiency, supporting personalized drug delivery systems. Stimulus‐responsive alginate‐based systems are sensitive to pH, temperature, redox conditions, and light, indicating their ability to target cancer therapy, gastrointestinal delivery, wound healing, and tissue engineering. Furthermore, challenges remain, including variability in alginate composition, stability issues, limited doses of hydrophobic drugs, and a lack of large‐scale manufacturing and clinical studies.
Ashutosh Gupta, Aniket Navale, Debadrita Ghosh et al.· Polymers for Advanced Techno...· 0 citations
Background: Lipid nanocarriers have emerged as a novel alternative to traditional drug delivery systems such as emulsions, liposomes, and microparticulate systems. These are spherical nano-sized (1–1000 nm) colloidal carriers dispersed in an aqueous surfactant solution. Their biodegradable, biocompatible, and non-toxic nature has led to extensive exploration in clinical medicine for multiple routes of administration, including oral, parenteral, and topical delivery. They offer high stability, large drug-loading capacity, and the ability to deliver both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs in a targeted and controlled manner.
Purpose: The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of lipid nanocarriers, focusing on their fundamental principles, advantages, limitations, preparation methods, and characterization techniques.
Methods: The review compiles and analyzes literature from relevant publications from the last 15 years on lipid nanocarriers, covering their formulation approaches, different preparation techniques, and evaluation parameters used to assess their physicochemical and functional properties.
Results: Lipid nanocarriers demonstrate significant advantages, including enhanced stability, improved drug loading, controlled and targeted drug release, and adaptability to various formulation requirements. Their versatility makes them suitable for applications in pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nutraceuticals, and diagnostic systems.
Conclusions: A comprehensive understanding of lipid nanocarriers can open new avenues in the treatment of multifactorial disorders. Their safety, efficacy, and flexibility position them as promising candidates for advanced drug delivery systems and future therapeutic innovations.
Ravi Goyal, Gurpreet Kaur, Sumit Sharma et al.· Journal of Pharmaceutical Te...· 0 citations