Biodegradable Particulate Carrier Formulation and Tuning for Targeted Drug Delivery

Biodegradable micro- and nanoparticles have the potential to reform the drug development landscape by improving drug solubility, changing undesirable pharmacokinetics, realizing the benefits of new molecules arising from genomic and proteomic research, and increasing drug localization in target organs and tissues; i.e., drug targeting. This review provides an overview of the in vivo fate of biodegradable particulate carriers following administration via several routes, as well as how the patient's health state, disease pathophysiology and particle physicochemical properties affect such fates. It also discusses some of the widely used biodegradable polymers, their in vivo biochemical degradation, methods of nanoparticle formulation from such polymers and finally, how such methods could be tailored to achieve targeted delivery to specified tissues both passively and actively.