Nanomedicines for overcoming biological barriers

Drug delivery is an interdisciplinary area of research that aims at making the administration of complex new drugs feasible, as well as adding critical value to the drugs that are currently in the market. At present, one of the most attractive areas of research in drug delivery is the design of nanomedicines consisting of nanosystems that are able to deliver drugs to the right place, at appropriate times. The goal of the present article is to review the advances we have made in the development and characterization of nanosystems intended to be used as drug carriers for mucosal administration. These nanocarriers are able to protect the associated drug against degradation and facilitate its transport across critical and specific barriers. Some of them, are further able to release the associated drug to the target tissue in a controlled manner. These nanocarriers have been made of safe materials, including synthetic biodegradable polymers, lipids and polysaccharides. A number of nanotechnologies have been developed that enable the association of a variety of drugs to these nanocarriers, ranging from classical small drug to large DNA fragments. The in vitro cell culture studies and the in vivo experiments have evidenced the potential of these nanocarriers for overcoming important mucosal barriers, such as the intestinal, nasal and ocular barriers. Hopefully, this will soon represent a strategy for making cheaper and faster, more efficacious medicines. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier SAS.