Alginates in Drug Delivery explores the vital precepts, basic and fundamental aspects of alginates in pharmaceutical sciences, biopharmacology, and in the biotechnology industry. The use of natural polymers in healthcare applications over synthetic polymers is becoming more prevalent due to natural polymers' biocompatibility, biodegradability, economic extraction and ready availability. To fully utilize and harness the potential of alginates, this book presents a thorough understanding of the synthesis, purification, and characterization of alginates and their derivative. This book collects, in a single volume, all relevant information on alginates in health care, including recent advances in the field. This is a highly useful resource for pharmaceutical scientists, health care professionals and regulatory scientists actively involved in the pharmaceutical product and process development of natural polymer containing drug delivery, as well as postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows in pharmaceutical sciences.

Fighting the Opioid Epidemic: The Role of Providers and the Clinical Laboratory in Understanding Who Is Vulnerable covers the important aspects that are essential in fighting the opioid epidemic. This succinct reference highlights how the toxicology laboratory can play a vital role in fighting the opioid epidemic by implementing a robust system for drugs of abuse testing as well as drug testing in pain management patients. It targets health care professionals in a technical manner, discussing polymorphisms of important genes that may be associated with increased vulnerability of alcohol and drug addiction to an individual.

Methods of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Including Pharmacogenetics, Second Edition, Volume Seven in the Handbook of Analytical Separations series, covers all aspects of drug monitoring, including laboratory work, pharmacokinetic analysis and clinical aspects, thus enabling readers from different fields to understand the whole process of therapeutic drug monitoring and how to avoid common pitfalls. The book contains analytical techniques for the quantification of drugs, along with pharmacogenetic and pharmacogenomic methods. Also included are updates on sample preparation, including dried blood spot technology and microextraction methods. In addition, the book includes new drugs, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors and the monitoring of immunosuppressant drugs.

A vast majority of the world's population lacks access to essential medicines and the provision of safe healthcare services. Medicinal plants and herbal medicines can be applied for pharmacognosy, or the discovery of new drugs, or as an aid for plant physiology studies. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the search for new chemical entities and the expression of resistance of many drugs available in the market has led to a shift in paradigm towards medicinal research. Herbal treatments, the most popular form of folk medicine, may become an important way of increasing access to healthcare services. Handbook of Research on Pharmacological Uses of Medicinal Plants and Natural Products provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of drug discovery from natural sources that allow for the effective treatment of human health problems without any side effects, toxicity, or drug resistance. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as ethnobotany, therapeutic applications, and bioactive compounds, this book is ideally designed for pharmacologists, scientists, ethnobotanists, botanists, health researchers, professors, industry professionals, and health students in fields that include pharmaceutical drug development and discovery.

Polymeric Nanoparticles as Promising Tool for Anti-cancer Therapeutics provides an understanding of polymeric compounds and their use in cancer therapies. The book begins by giving an overview of the current status, future challenges and potential utilization of polymeric nanoparticles. It then covers specific polymeric nanoparticles through contributions from world-renowned experts and researchers. Chapters examine specific polymeric nanoparticles, their development as potential targeted delivery systems, and cancer characteristics that can be targeted for therapy development. The book synthesizes current research trends in the field, thus enhancing existing knowledge of nanomedicine, drug delivery and therapeutic intervention strategies in human cancers. Users will find this to be an ideal reference for research scientists and those in the pharmaceutical and medical fields who are working to develop novel cancer therapies using nanoparticle-based delivery systems.