Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are nanocarriers developed as substitute colloidal drug delivery systems parallel to liposomes, lipid emulsions, polymeric nanoparticles, and so forth. Owing to their unique size dependent properties and ability to incorporate drugs, SLNs present an opportunity to build up new therapeutic prototypes for drug delivery and targeting. SLNs hold great potential for attaining the goal of targeted and controlled drug delivery, which currently draws the interest of researchers worldwide. The present review sheds light on different aspects of SLNs including fabrication and characterization techniques, formulation variables, routes of administration, surface modifications, toxicity, and biomedical applications.

No abstract

No abstract

Quality by design (QbD) encourages the pharmaceutical industry to use risk management and science-based manufacturing principles to gain process and product understanding and thus assures quality of the product. With the objective to curb the rising costs for development and regulatory barriers to innovation and creativity, QbD is being widely promoted by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Conference on Harmonization (ICH). Areas covered: This review describes the elements, different design and tools of QbD as well as multidimensional applications of QbD ranging from dosage form and method development to meeting latest regulatory requirements. Expert opinion: The understanding of a process is facilitated by proper identification of sources of variation, management of variability by process design, and prediction of product quality attributes using design space. The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly adopting the QbD principles for fabrication of safe, effective and quality products; however, we are still on a journey and the process of gathering all experience and metrics required for connecting and demonstrating QbD benefits to all stakeholders is still in progress. Understanding the formulation and process parameters with the philosophy of QbD will be useful for the optimization of complex drug delivery systems in the near future.

Background: In recent years, nanotechnology is gaining more attention of analytical and biomedical researchers. Nanotechnology derived nanotools deal with the nanoscale length size (i.e., 10-9 m). The particles having size below 100 nm displayed improved properties for attaining increased efficacy, better patient compliance, improved biodistribution and site-specific drug delivery. Method: Google, PubMed, Web of Science portals have been searched for potentially relevant literature to get latest developments and updated information related to different aspects of nanotechnology derived nanocarriers including biomedical applications. Results: Available literature demonstrated that nanotechnology-based nanocarriers like liposomes, dendrimers, polymeric micelles, carbon dots, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, magnetic nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles have enormous potential applications in the pharmaceutical field. The current review focuses on the drug delivery, bioimaging, tissue engineering and therapeutic applications of different nanotools. Besides these, scope and opportunities, as well as the global market scenario of nanotechnology derived nanotools, have also been discussed. The practice of nanotechnology in the arena of medicine will transform the strategies of detection and treatment of a wide range of diseases in the upcoming years.