Swinburne University: BIO80005 Literature Review on Drug Delivery

This literature review examines the current state of drug delivery systems, focusing on the advancements and applications of nanotechnology in this field. The review begins by defining drug delivery systems and their importance in treating various diseases, highlighting the evolution of these systems and the underlying concepts of targeted drug delivery. It discusses the advantages of targeted drug delivery, such as increased efficacy and reduced side effects. The review then identifies gaps in current research, particularly in the translation of theoretical research to clinical practice. It emphasizes the significance of drug delivery systems, particularly in cancer treatment, and the role of nanotechnology in improving drug penetration, bioavailability, and stability. The paper explores the novelty of nanotechnology in drug delivery, including its application to herbal medicines, and discusses the potential of polymeric nanoparticles. The review concludes by posing a research question regarding the feasibility of scaling up nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems and bringing these innovative therapies to market. The review also includes a comprehensive list of references in the Swinburne Harvard style.

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BIOTECHNOLOGY
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Literature review:
Identification of the topic
This paper highlights the drug delivery systems, which are quite efficient in nature
and play an important role in treatment and management of diseases, especially in fields
which face a lot of challenges. This technology of drug delivery system is a new technology
that is being used in order to present a drug that is desired to be released at a particular body
site (Kreuter, 2014). There is absorption of the drug after the release where the components
of the drug actively transports across the biological membranes to the particular action site of
the body. The drug delivery system is basically a device, rather a formulation that helps to
introduce the drug into the body system so that the efficacy of the drug can be increased and
it works safety. This can be done by controlling its rate of diffusion, along with the time and
place of the release inside the body. However this system of drug delivery has its own
advantages and disadvantages in terms of the controlled release systems and the sustainability
of the drug inside the body. The history of the drug delivery system can be divided into three
phases (Park, 2014). However recently more extensive research is being carried out which
seems to promise medicines which are more personalized that aims to make the drug delivery
systems more precise biologically and more accurate. The improved systems promises to use
more biological characteristics in comparison to the material oriented characteristics. This
drug delivery system can be useful for treating an array of diseases and disorders.
Additionally the drug delivery systems are useful in providing growth factors to the sites of
the body systems in order to bring about regenerationand repair along with prevention of
infection (Sun et al., 2014).

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Underlying concepts of the drug delivery system
The targeted drug delivery system (TDDS) is one of the most researched areas in the
field of pharmaceutical drugs and design. This targeted drug delivery system, is more
effective and specific in action, in comparison to other designs of deliveries. Along with its
increased specificity, it has more therapeutic index and can protect the payload of the drug
better. The principles lying behind the drug delivery systems help in increasing the efficacy
of the medicinal agents along with reducing the toxicity of the agents. The targeted drug
delivery systems uses the macromolecular carriers that are long circulating for example the
liposomes. According to Masood, (2016) some liposomal anthracyclines have been able to
achieve the drug encapsulation with high efficacy. This has resulted in significant activities of
anticancer drugs which have successfully reduced cardiotoxicity. This also includes the
liposomal daunorubicin and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in new versions. In another
study, it was reported that the pegylated liposomal doxorubicin was significant in showing
appropriate activities in breast cancer in chemotherapy as well as monotherapy (Kumar,
Zhang & Liang, 2013). In accordance to the study conducted by Hughes, (2017) the latest
generation of the drug delivery systems, will tend to include the molecular targeting in
addition to the immunoliposomes. Even several other ligand-directed constructs will become
part of the biological components that will be used in the new generation of drug delivery
systems. These will be capable of tumour recognition along with the technologies of drug
delivery (Couvreur, 2013). Several advantages of this targeted delivery system includes
localization of the drug, reduction of the side effects along with the dosage reduction and
modulated pharmacokinetics. In addition it also promotes better patient compliance.
Gaps in knowledge of research
In spite of the conduction of rigorous research in the field of drug delivery systems,
there still exists certain gap in the literature especially in terms of the application of the

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theoretical research to the clinical practice. Although there has been several preclinical
models developed through research which shows the clinical implications of the drug
delivery designs to treat various diseases, there is still lack of practice in the proper clinical
setting (Stirland et al., 2013).
Significance of the research
The concept of an ideal drug-delivery system reflects two main ideas that is the ability
to control the release of the drug and the ability to target the proper site. Effective targeting is
desired so that the efficacy of the drug gets elevated along with the reduction of its side
effects (Bonifácio et al., 2014). This is desirable especially in case of drugs which are which
acts to kill the cells of cancer. If not targeted properly, the drug might kill the healthy cells as
well. Nano-medicine has been finding importance in field of drug delivery with the increase
in the production of the materials at a scale of nanometers which is being used for better
treatment procedures long with imaging and diagnosis of the diseases. The use of
nanotechnology has evidently showed that there is better penetration of the particles of drug
inside the body, allowing delivery through the use of intravenous injections (Couvreur,
2013). Especially in the field of cancer medicines, it has a significant role to play as it has a
better bioavailability and stability in vivo. Additionally this possesses better intestinal
absorption and enhanced solubility. This kind of drug delivery is more sustainable with
enhanced therapeuticefficacy of various anticancer agents. Traditionally the agents of
chemotherapy like camptothecin, taxenes, platinating agents, doxorobucin, and nucleoside
and nucleotide analogs have been used (Hughes, 2017). However several disadvantaged were
perceived with the use of these agents like affecting the normal cells along with tumour cells
along with several secondary effects that were concomitant like ardiotoxicity, cytotoxicity,
neurotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, and ototoxicity (Kumar, Zhang & Liang, 2013). With the
emergence of the nanotechnology formulations these problems have been overcome recently.

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The nanotechnology has been expanding in the field of drug delivery with its increasing
novelty. The novelty of the use of nanotechnology especially in cancer medicine lies in
delivery of the therapies of cancer to the small interference RNA (siRNA) along with the
microRNA (miRNAs)-based molecules (Sahoo, Misra & Parveen, 2017).
Novelty of the research
With the expansion of the implementation of the drug delivery systems, there has
been increased research taking place. New dimensions are being discovered in this field
continuously. Here the paper will discuss the novelty of the research of drug delivery systems
in terms of implementation of nanotechnology in drug delivery with respect to herbal
medicines. A recent study by Wang et al., (2015) shows that there has been developments of
various innovative delivery systems, that includes the use of polymeric nanoparticles. Such
nanoparticles are being synthesized from polymers that are biodegradable as well as
biocompatible. This innovation technology provides a promising option for controlled system
of drug delivery. This nanosized system of drug delivery can be used effectively for the
herbal drugs, which increase the biological activity of the medicines in significant amounts
and helps to overcome the problems that are related to plant medicines. A study by Bonifácio
et al., (2014) showed that Triptolide , which is a purified compound obtained from shrub like
vine, Tripterygium wilfordii exhibits several biological properties. However in spite of having
such important medicinal properties, it shows certain disadvantages like poor solubility on
water along with certain toxic effects. These disadvantaged can be overcome by using
nanotechnology that helps to improve the permeability of the particles. Other researchers
showed implementation of nanotechnology in several other herbal medicines like extracts of
the Syagrus romanzoffiana fruit pulp. Nanoemulsions can be developed of these extracts to
make the effective formulations that can be used in the body systems, which shows better
activity (Kreuter, 2014).

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Several researches have tried to actualize the new innovative ways to deal with
increased advantages that are displayed by the drug delivery systems. Thus, the diminishing
harmful impacts along with the aggregate impacts have met the developing enthusiasm for
the recent years. Likewise, a slight increment in the utilization of common items has been
seen inside nanostructure systems that involved the drugs, since the medicinal products that
are obtained in this manner evidently has certain advantages over the systems of drug
delivery that used synthetic sources (Bonifácio et al., 2014). There are fewer reactions in
natural compounds in terms of their toxicological and pharmacological characteristics than
those acquired from the industrial sources.
Research question
With the increase in research in the field of nanosized drug delivery systems, several
challenges related to the problems of plant medicines have been overcome. However certain
significant challenges still persists in this field. This includes the trials of the methods that are
novel in controlling the interactions of the nanomaterials with biological systems. The
research question now involves the feasibility of these nanotechnology-based drug delivery
systems development procedures to scale up the process. Additionally how the scale up
process will make bring these innovative techniques of therapy to the market rapidly. The
question also involves the possibility of gaining multifunctional systems that will help to
fulfil the various therapeutic and biological requirements (Couvreur, 2013).

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References
Bonifácio, B. V., da Silva, P. B., dos Santos Ramos, M. A., Negri, K. M. S., Bauab, T. M., &
Chorilli, M. (2014). Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems and herbal
medicines: a review. International journal of nanomedicine, 9, 1.
Couvreur, P. (2013). Nanoparticles in drug delivery: past, present and future. Advanced drug
delivery reviews, 65(1), 21-23.
Hughes, G. A. (2017). Nanostructure-mediated drug delivery. In Nanomedicine in
Cancer (pp. 47-72). Pan Stanford.
Kreuter, J. (2014). Colloidal drug delivery systems (Vol. 66). CRC Press.
Kumar, A., Zhang, X., & Liang, X. J. (2013). Gold nanoparticles: emerging paradigm for
targeted drug delivery system. Biotechnology advances, 31(5), 593-606.
Masood, F. (2016). Polymeric nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery system for cancer
therapy. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 60, 569-578.
Park, K. (2014). Controlled drug delivery systems: past forward and future back. Journal of
Controlled Release, 190, 3-8.
Sahoo, S. K., Misra, R., & Parveen, S. (2017). Nanoparticles: a boon to drug delivery,
therapeutics, diagnostics and imaging. In Nanomedicine in Cancer (pp. 73-124). Pan
Stanford.
Stirland, D. L., Nichols, J. W., Miura, S., & Bae, Y. H. (2013). Mind the gap: a survey of
how cancer drug carriers are susceptible to the gap between research and
practice. Journal of Controlled Release, 172(3), 1045-1064.

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Sun, T., Zhang, Y. S., Pang, B., Hyun, D. C., Yang, M., & Xia, Y. (2014). Engineered
nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer therapy. Angewandte Chemie International
Edition, 53(46), 12320-12364.
Wang, X. G., Dong, Z. Y., Cheng, H., Wan, S. S., Chen, W. H., Zou, M. Z., ... & Zhang, X.
Z. (2015). A multifunctional metal–organic framework based tumor targeting drug
delivery system for cancer therapy. Nanoscale, 7(38), 16061-16070.