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Review
. 2016 Sep;12(3):157-162.
doi: 10.14797/mdcj-12-3-157.

Novel Nanoprinting for Oral Delivery of Poorly Soluble Drugs

Cihan Yilmaz  1 , Can Sarisozen  1 , Vladimir Torchilin  1 , Ahmed Busnaina  1
Affiliations
Review

Novel Nanoprinting for Oral Delivery of Poorly Soluble Drugs

Cihan Yilmaz et al. Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2016 Sep.

Abstract

Many of the newly developed drugs for cancer, and some of those for cardiovascular disease, are poorly soluble in water and cannot be taken orally. This can be overcome by employing a new and effective delivery system utilizing nanotechnology. We present a new method for oral preparation of poorly soluble drugs that entails assembling (printing) drug-loaded polymeric micelles into sub-100 nm orally acceptable nanorods (NRs). Due to their small size, these NRs will have a high permeability through cells and thus should transport through the intestine to allow for drug delivery in the blood. These NRs drugs are expected to penetrate tumors more efficiently and much faster than individual nanoparticles and may also be useful for drug delivery to atherosclerotic plaque. This should lead to better bioavailability of the drug with reduced toxicity and side effects. Currently used micellar formulations are administered intravenously, which is invasive and could be toxic due to high doses and interaction with normal healthy tissues. Oral drug administration is the easiest and most desirable way to deliver most drugs, including those that are poorly soluble.

Keywords: drug-loaded micelles; nanoparticles; nanorods; poorly soluble drugs.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Fabrication of 3D nanorods (NRs) fabricated by fast and scalable directed assembly method. (a) Schematic of fabrication process. (b) Billions of NRs fabricated on a substrate. (c) 30-nm diameter NR fabricated from PEG-PE micelles. (d) 100-nm diameter NR fabricated from paclitaxel drug-loaded PEG-PE. PEG-PE: polyethylene glycol-phosphatidylethanolamine
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
(a) Preparation of a paclitaxel drug-loaded tagged micellar system. (b) Fabrication and harvesting of orally acceptable 3-dimensional drug-loaded micellar nanorods (NRs) using electric field directed assembly. Red and black colors of the NRs indicate the dye and the drug incorporated into micelles, respectively. (c) Optical and scanning electron microscopy images of the drug-loaded micelles embedded in a water-soluble polymer before and after harvested from the substrate.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Product concept from the production of the drug-loaded nanorods to delivery to the tumor cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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