Abstract

MICROSPHERES AS DRUG CARRIERS FOR TARGETED DRUG DELIVERY: A REVIEW

Rohit* and Neha

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Abstract

Microsphere is having free- flowing powder properties that are incorporate proteins and synthetic or natural polymer. This polymer is biodegradable in nature and particle size having less than 200 μm. So, carrier technology offers an intelligent approach for drug delivery by coupling the drug to a carrier particle such as microspheres, nanoparticles, liposomes, niosomes etc which modulates the release and absorption characteristics of the drug. Microspheres play a very important role as particulate drug delivery system because of their small size and other efficient properties. Microspheres have been proved to be a suitable bridge to scale the distance over to formulate an effective dosage form, to simulate controlled drug release. Microspheres having particle size in range between 0.1-200 μm, can be delivered by several routes like oral, parentral, nasal, ophthalmic, transdermal, colonal etc. Various recent advancement in case of microspheres like mucoadhesive, hollow, floating, microballons, magnetic have been contributed to overcome the various problems that are associated with the use of microspheres, which includes site specific targeting and improved release kinetics. In future by combining various new strategies, microspheres will find a central place in novel drug delivery, particularly in diseased cell sorting, genetic materials, safe, targeting and effective drug delivery.

Keywords: Nanotechnology, Microsphere, Microadhesive, Natural polymer, Targeted drug delivery system.