Fabrication of solid nanoparticles for drug delivery.

The use of nanoparticles in biotechnology presents a growing interest for the numerous possibilities offered by combining the world of materials, with its advanced technologies and their diverse properties, and the biological world, with its elaborate molecular architectures, properties and functions. Different nanoparticles are attractive for their intrinsic properties of optical transparency, controllable porosity, chemical inertness and biocompatibility. Various synthetic methods have been developed for preparing nanoparticles with well-controlled sizes and shapes. Research in nanotechnology and biopharmaceutics or collectively nanomedicine has recently taken a new dimension, with amazing variety of methods for fabrication of nanoparticles. It is now possible to enhance or control drug delivery, this is required in case of poorly soluble drug, or drugs to cross blood brain barrier (BBB). Moreover, this technique can also be utilized for targeted delivery of drugs. There are number of methods reported in literature for the fabrication of nanoparticles. These include Sol-Gel technique, spraying the drug solution in vacuum, solvent diffusion or precipitation method. The former two techniques are mostly used to fabricate porous nanoparticles. Present paper reviews these techniques so as to give an idea to those planning to start with the fabrication of nanoparticles in a particular area of interest.