Drug-delivery systems administration

Because these types of polymeric matrix systems are the simplest to design and the easiest to obtain approval by the Food and Drug Administration, they have been the most extensively studied in the past two decades. Numerous polymers have been evaluated for these types of drug delivery systems and although it would be impractical to present each of these polymers and its specific application to drug delivery, this chapter will review in general the types of polymers used as matrices for drug delivery (1-4). 

To date most drug delivery systems are designed to either overcome a barrier presented by or exploit an opportunity presented by a given route of administration. Often these two accomplishments are complementary. Each of the major routes present a unique set of barriers and exploitable characteristics. Consider the following major routes. 

Two basic questions arise from the biological system (excluding the route of administration discussed above) when the use of a polymeric drug delivery system is contemplated ... 

M El-Samaligy, P Rohdewald. Triamcinolone diacetate nanoparticles, a sustained release drug delivery system suitable for parenteral administration. Pharm Acta Helv 57 201, 1982. 

Before treating the various classes of sustained- and controlled-release drug-delivery systems in this chapter, it is appropriate to note that drug delivery may be incorporated in other chapters where the various classes of drug products and routes of administration are discussed. In addition, the reader is referred to Chapter 14 on target-oriented drug-delivery systems. 

Historically, the oral route of administration has been used the most for both conventional and novel drug-delivery systems. There are many obvious reasons for this, not the least of which would include acceptance by the patient and ease of administration. The types of sustained- and controlled-release systems employed for oral administration include virtually every currently known theoretical mechanism for such application. This is because there is more flexibility in dosage design, since constraints, such as sterility and potential damage at the site of administration, axe minimized. Because of this, it is convenient to discuss the different types of dosage forms by using those developed for oral administration as initial examples. 

Despite the evidence for the cytotoxicity of CNTs, there are an increasing number of published studies that support the potential development of CNT-based biomaterials for tissue regeneration (e.g., neuronal substrates [143] and orthopedic materials [154—156]), cancer treatment [157], and drug/vaccine delivery systems [158, 159]. Most of these applications will involve the implantation and/or administration of such materials into patients as for any therapeutic or diagnostic agent used, the toxic potential of the CNTs must be evaluated in relation to their potential benefits [160]. For this reason, detailed investigations of the interactions between CNTs/CNT-based implants and various cell types have been carried out [154, 155, 161]. A comprehensive description of such results, however, is beyond the scope of this chapter. Extensive reviews on the biocompatibility of implantable CNT composite materials [21, 143, 162] and of CNT drug-delivery systems [162] are available. 

H. Bundgaard, C. Larsen, E. Arnold, Prodrugs as Drug Delivery Systems XXVII. Chemical Stability and Bioavailability of a Water-Soluble Prodrug of Metronidazole for Parenteral Administration , Int. J. Pharm. 1984, 18, 79-87. 

Noninvasive drug delivery may require the administration of the drug delivery system (DDS) at an epithelium as a suitable site of absorption of the active compormd. Such regions are usually called mucosae. In the human body several mucosal sites can be identified, the one mostly used for administration and absorption of therapeutics being the gastrointestinal route. In order to increase the residence time at these absorption sites, a so-called mucoadhesive delivery system has to be used. Generally, these systems consist of one or more types of hydrogels. 

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