Nasal drug administration has been used as an alternative route for the systemic availability of drugs restricted to intravenous administration. This is due to the large surface area, porous endothelial membrane, high total blood flow, the avoidance of first-pass metabolism, and ready accessibility. The nasal administration of drugs, including numerous compound, peptide and protein drugs, for systemic medication has been widely investigated in recent years. Drugs are cleared rapidly from the nasal cavity after intranasal administration, resulting in rapid systemic drug absorption. Several approaches are here discussed for increasing the residence time of drug formulations in the nasal cavity, resulting in improved nasal drug absorption. The article highlights the importance and advantages of the drug delivery systems applied via the nasal route, which have bioadhesive properties. Bioadhesive, or more appropriately, mucoadhesive systems have been prepared for both oral and peroral administration in the past. The nasal mucosa presents an ideal site for bioadhesive drug delivery systems. In this review we discuss the effects of microspheres and other bioadhesive drug delivery systems on nasal drug absorption. Drug delivery systems, such as microspheres, liposomes and gels have been demonstrated to have good bioadhesive characteristics and that swell easily when in contact with the nasal mucosa. These drug delivery systems have the ability to control the rate of drug clearance from the nasal cavity as well as protect the drug from enzymatic degradation in nasal secretions. The mechanisms and effectiveness of these drug delivery systems are described in order to guide the development of specific and effective therapies for the future development of peptide preparations and other drugs that otherwise should be administered parenterally. As a consequence, bioavailability and residence time of the drugs that are administered via the nasal route can be increased by bioadhesive drug delivery systems. Although the majority of this work involving the use of microspheres, liposomes and gels is limited to the delivery of macromolecules (e.g., insulin and growth hormone), the general principles involved could be applied to other drug candidates. It must be emphasized that many drugs can be absorbed well if the contact time between formulation and the nasal mucosa is optimized.

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Theranostic liposomes carry both the therapeutic active ingredients and the contrast agent into one delivery system. Codelivery of imaging contrast agent and chemotherapeutic drugs can provide real-time validation of the targeting strategy, resulting in an another step forward for individual-based therapy. The aim of this study was the incorporation of different drugs used in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors into one delivery system to develop nanosized, polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated, different charged theranostic liposomes. Different charged liposomes consisting of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) or Phospholipon(®) 90G (PL 90G; Phospholipid GmbH, Cologne, Germany), cholesterol, poly(ethylene glycol)2000/phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PEG(2000)-PE), stearylamine (SA) or dicetyl phosphate (DCP), and diethylenetriamine pentaacetate/PE (DTPA-PE) as bilayer ingredients and 5-florouracil (5-FU) as active substance were prepared by the film technique. Characterization, 5-FU in vitro release, cytotoxicity, and physical stability studies were performed. Particle size of all liposomes was 100-150 nm. Difference was not noted between encapsulation efficiency (EE%) of neutral DPPC and PL 90G liposomes containing 5-FU. EE% of charged DPPC liposomes was higher than that of charged PL 90G liposomes. PL 90G containing liposomes had a higher phospholipid amount than the same formulation of DPPC liposomes. DPPC containing different charged liposomes were selected for cytotoxicity studies. Different charged DPPC liposomes had the same antitumoral activity with the free 5-FU solution on MCF-7 cell lines. Liposome dispersions were more stable from the point of particle-size change and 5-FU leakage during storage at refrigerated temperature. The results of this study are very encouraging for the development of theranostic liposome formulations as a targeted delivery system for drugs, such as 5-FU, used both in therapy and imaging.

Radiopharmaceuticals are radioactive medicines used for imaging and/or therapeutic purposes, consisting of radionuclidic and pharmaceutical parts. While PET and SPECT methods are used for imaging purposes, immuno-PET imaging method has gained popularity, recently. Immuno-PET imaging method, is a combination of PET radionuclides and biomolecules, especially monoclonal antibodies (mAb), proteins, peptides, are frequently used for the imaging of different types of cancer. Radionuclides with long half-lives are generally used in immuno-PET imaging. Long biological half-lives of mAbs is the most important reason to be preferred for immuno-PET imaging. Today, Zirconium-89 (Zr-89), Iodine-124 (I-124) with long half-lives and Copper-64 (Cu-64) and Yttrium-86 (Y-86) radionuclides with relatively long half-lives are preferred in immuno-PET imaging. In this article, studies on Zr-89, Cu-64, I-124 and Y-86-labeled mAbs with long half-life and clinical and preclinical studies were reviewed. Also, comparison of these 4 radionuclides, which are frequently used in the labelling of biomolecules (particularly mAbs) with is included.