Nano-sized drug carriers : their present status and future perspective

Abstract

Nano-sized drug carriers have been actively studied and developed in the field of DDS in much earlier years than the year 2000 when a famous nanotechnology initiative program was presented by the US government. The reason for this preceding activity concerning nanotechnology is the fact that advantages and significance of the use of nano-sized drug carriers had been well known and recognized until 1990's in the DDS field. Furthermore, developments in preparation technology of the nano-sized carriers in 1980's and 1990's are the other reason.
In this review, advantages and significance of the nano-sized carriers are explained first, followed by classification of the carriers. In the last chapter, recent developments and future perspectives of each class of the carriers are concisely described as well as related two topics (nano-medicine and molecular imaging) are briefly introduced.