Recent advances in supramolecular organic nanostructures for drug delivery applications (Chapter 18)

Abstract

Recently, nanotechnology has shown remarkable development in several fields and acts as one of the frontier areas of science such as in biomedical research, tissue engineering, pharmaceutical discovery, and diagnosis of various diseases. Great progress has been made by utilization of supramolecular organic nanostructures in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases with the concept of a drug delivery system. One of the most important aspects of drug delivery system is to deliver the drug to the targeted site. In order to drop the drug to a specific site of diseases lesion, a convenient, suitable drug or efficient drug delivery system is required. All over the world, the researchers in this field are mainly focused on formation of self-assembled superstructures from small organic molecules such as coumarin, porphyrin, and cyclodextrin, utilized as drug delivery systems for doxorubicin, mitoxantrone, etc. Nano-drug material considered as the "intricate combinations" comprising of various bioactive molecules such as peptide antibodies and nucleotide fraction encapsulated in nano-carrier by the noncovalent interactions, whereas the traditional pharmaceutical drugs are formulated of single drug and biodegradable excipients. Some of the current advances in the area are discussed in this chapter.