An outstanding aspect of pharmaceutical nanotechnology lies in the characterization of nanocarriers for targeting of drugs and other bioactive agents. The development of microscopic techniques has made the study of the surface and systems architecture more attractive. In the field of pharmaceutical nanosystems, researchers have collected vital information on size, stability, and bilayer organization through the microscopic characterization of liposomes. This paper aims to compare the results obtained by atomic force microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy to point out the limits and advantages of these applications in the evaluation of vesicular systems. Besides this comparative aim, our work proposes a simple confocal laser scanning microscopy procedure to rapidly and easily detect the liposomal membrane.
Polymeric Np have been shown to be promising carriers for CNS drug delivery due to their potential both in encapsulating drugs, hence protecting them from excretion and metabolism, and in delivering active agents across the blood-brain barrier without inflicting any damage to the barrier. Different polymers have been used and different strategies have been applied; among these, the use of specific ligands to enhance the specificity of drugs delivered to the CNS has recently been considered. At present, clinical trials are being conducted appeared for the use of these drug carriers but none related to the treatment of CNS diseases.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.