Nasal Drug Delivery System-Factors Affecting and Applications

The nasal route is a potential alternative route for systemic availability of drugs restricted to intravenous administration, such as peptide and protein drugs and vaccines. This route is also advisable for drugs undergoing extensive first pass effect. Besides this, intranasal route has also been successfully exploited for bypassing the blood brain barrier [BBB] and subsequently delivering drug molecules to central nervous system [CNS]. The present article highlights the advantages, barriers, physicochemical factors and formulation related parameters affecting the nasal drug delivery. It also includes a note on nasal absorption enhancers. Also, the applications of nasal route for delivery of peptides and proteins, non-peptide drugs, vaccines and drug molecules to CNS have been summarized in depth.