In the fast-developing field of nanomedicine, a broad variety of materials have been used for the development of advanced delivery systems for drugs, genes, and diagnostic agents. With the recent breakthroughs in the field, we are witnessing a new age of disease management, which is governed by precise regulation of dosage and delivery. This book presents the advances in the use of lipid-based and inorganic nanomaterials for medical imaging, diagnosis, theranostics, and drug delivery. The materials discussed include liposome-scaffold systems, elastic liposomes, targeted liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, lipoproteins, exosomes, porous inorganic nanomaterials, silica nanoparticles, and inorganic nanohybrids. The book provides all available information about them and describes in detail their advantages and disadvantages and the areas where they could be utilized successfully.

In the fast-developing field of nanomedicine, a broad variety of materials have been used for the development of advanced delivery systems for drugs, genes, and diagnostic agents. With the recent breakthroughs in the field, we are witnessing a new age of disease management, which is governed by precise regulation of dosage and delivery. This book presents the advances in the use of polymeric nanomaterials for medical imaging, diagnosis, theranostics, and drug delivery. Beginning with the combinatorial approach for polymer design, it discusses star-shaped amphiphilic polymers, self-assembling polymer-drug conjugates, amphiphilic dendrimers, dendrimer nanohybrids, sustainable green polymeric nanoconstructs, chitosan-based nanogels, and multifunctional hybrid nanogels. The book provides all available information about these materials and describes in detail their advantages and disadvantages and the areas where they could be utilized successfully.

In the fast-developing field of nanomedicine, a broad variety of materials have been used for the development of advanced delivery systems for drugs, genes, and diagnostic agents. With the recent breakthroughs in the field, we are witnessing a new age of disease management, which is governed by precise regulation of dosage and delivery. This book presents the advances in the use of metal-based and other nanomaterials for medical imaging, diagnosis, theranostics, and drug delivery. It discusses silver, hybrid gold, and surface-modified magnetic nanoparticles, fluorescent quantum dots, lipid bubbles, and nanobubbles. It provides all available information about these materials and describes in detail their advantages and disadvantages and the areas where they could be utilized successfully. The text also covers topics such as improving bioactivity of poorly soluble actives, cellular and molecular toxicology of nanoparticles, and biofate of nanoemulsions.

The use of various pharmaceutical carriers to enhance the in vivo efficiency of many drugs and drug administration protocols has been well established during the last decade in both pharmaceutical research and clinical setting. Surface modification of pharmaceutical nanocarriers, such as liposome, micelles, na- capsules, polymeric nanoparticles, solid lipid particles, and niosomes, is normally used to control their biological properties in a desirable fashion and to simulta- ously make them perform various therapeutically or diagnostically important functions. The most important results of such modification include an increased stability and half-life of drug carriers in the circulation, required biodistribution, passive or active targeting into the required pathological zone, responsiveness to local physiological stimuli, and ability to serve as contrast agents for various imaging modalities (gamma-scintigraphy, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, ultra-sonography). Frequent surface modifiers (used separately or simultaneously) include soluble synthetic polymers (to achieve carrier longevity); specific ligands, such as antibodies, peptides, folate, transferrin, and sugar moieties (to achieve targeting effect); pH- or temperature-sensitive lipids or polymers (to impart stimuli sensitivity); chelating compounds, such as EDTA, DTPA, and deferoxamine (to add a heavy metal-based diagnostic/contrast moiety onto a drug carrier). Certainly, new or modified pharmaceutical carriers (nanocarriers) as well as their use for the delivery of various drugs and genes are still described in many publications.

This book is an up-to-date and unique collection of experimental protocols from an area of pharmaceutical research that is essential for the development of new, highly specific drugs as well as for the exploration of completely new therapeutic approaches to disease treatments.