Drug carrier

Drug carriers are substances that serve as mechanisms to improve the delivery and the effectiveness of drugs. Drug carriers are used in sundry drug delivery systems such as:

• controlled-release technology to prolong in vivo drug actions;
• decrease drug metabolism, and
• reduce drug toxicity.

Carriers are also used in designs to increase the effectiveness of drug delivery to the target sites of pharmacological actions.

Examples

Carriers which are able to biodegrade include:

• Liposomes;
• Microspheres made of the biodegradable polymer poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid
• albumin microspheres;
• synthetic polymers (soluble);
• nanofibers;^[1]
• Protein-DNA complexes;
• protein conjugates;
• erythrocytes
• virosomes

See also

• Bioavailability
• Drug design
• Nanoparticle

Resources

The following research papers from IUPAC are in pdf format:

• Biodegradable hydrogels for bone regeneration through growth factor release
• Development of acid-sensitive copolymer micelles for drug delivery

References

1. ^ Nagy ZK; Balogh A, Vajna B, Farkas A, Patyi G, Kramarics A, Marosi G (2011). "Comparison of Electrospun and Extruded Soluplus-Based Solid Dosage Forms of Improved Dissolution". Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. doi:10.1002/jps.22731. 

External links

• Weighting cancer drugs to make them hit tumors harder PhysOrg.com article
• Designing Better Cancer Drugs Provides insight into carrier molecules' functionality which may yield safer cancer treatments.