Biopolymer based nanomaterials in drug delivery systems: A review

Drug delivery systems (DDS) are used to achieve a higher therapeutic effects of a pharmaceutical drug or natural compound in a specific diseased site with minimal toxicological effect and these systems consists of liposomes, microspheres, gels, prodrugs and many. Nanotechnology is a rapidly developing multi-disciplinary science that ensures the fabrication of the polymers to nanometer scale for various medical applications. Uses of biopolymers in DDS ensure the biocompatibility, biodegradability and low immunogenicity over the synthetic ones. Biopolymers such as silk fibroins, collagen, gelatin, albumin, starch, cellulose and chitosan can be easily made into suspension that serve as delivery vehicles for both macro and mini drug molecules. There are various methods such as supercritical fluid extraction, desolvation, electrospraying, spray-drying, layer-by-layer self-assembly, freeze-drying and microemulsion introduced to make these DDS. This drug carrier systems enhance the drug delivery actively and can be used in ocular, transdermal, dental or intranasal delivery systems. This review describes the new trends in nanomaterials based drug delivery systems mainly using biopolymers such as proteins (silk fibroin, collagen, gelatin and albumin) and polysaccharides (chitosan, alginate, cellulose and starch).