Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2011 in |
Oxygen is a necessary element that controls many metabolic reactions in human body. Increased amount of oxygen in the body leads to continuous chain of events resulting in the formation of deleterious toxic free radicals which are capable of quenching the macromolecules including proteins and nucleic acids. To counteract the toxicity of the free radicals, human body synthesizes both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Non-enzymatic antioxidants are small molecules, capable of preventing the oxidative damage incurred by free radicals. Antioxidants also play crucial role in the controlling the health problems such as heart diseases, cancer, aging etc. which occur mostly due to accumulation of free radicals. The present review focuses on the various roles of antioxidants in maintaining the human...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2011 in |
Current modalities of diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, especially cancer have major limitations such as poor sensitivity or specificity and drug toxicities respectively. Newer and improved methods of cancer detection based on nanoparticles are being developed. They are used as contrast agents, fluorescent materials, molecular research tools and drugs with targeting antibodies. Paramagnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots, nanoshells and nanosomes are few of the nanoparticles used for diagnostic purposes. Drugs with high toxic potential like cancer chemotherapeutic drugs can be given with a better safety profile with the utility of nanotechnology. These can be made to act specifically at the target tissue by active as well as passive means. Other modalities of therapy such as heat induced ablation of cancer cells by nanoshells and gene therapy are also being developed. This review discusses the various platforms of nanotechnology being used in different aspects of medicine like diagnostics and therapeutics. The potential toxicities of the nanoparticles are also described in addition to hypothetical designs such as respirocytes and microbivores. The...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2011 in |
The transdermal route of drug delivery has attracted researchers due to many biomedical advantages associated with it. However, excellent impervious nature of skin is the greatest challenge that has to be overcome for successfully delivering drug molecules to the systemic circulation by this route. This review describes enhancement techniques based on drug/vehicle optimization such as physical and chemical penetration enhancers. Various novel carriers and vehicles like micro/nano and multiple emulsion, Liposomes, Niosomes, and Transferosomes etc., along with formulation strategies has also been discussed in the present...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2011 in |
Pelletization process first came into existence way back during the 1950s, when the first product was introduced to the market. These pelletized dosage forms have gained popularity considerably from then because of their distinct advantages, such as ease of capsule filling because of better flow properties of the perfectly spherical pellets; enhancement of drug dissolution; ease of coating; sustained, controlled, or site-specific delivery of the drug from coated pellets; uniform packing; even distribution in the GI tract; and less GI irritation. Pelletized dosage forms can be prepared by a number of techniques, including drug layering on nonpareil sugar or microcrystalline cellulose beads, spray drying, spray congealing, roto granulation, hot-melt extrusion, and spheronization of low melting materials or extrusion-spheronization of a wet mass. The present review outlines the recent findings on the manufacturing and evaluation of spherical pellets. The techniques namely extrusion-spheronization, hot melt extrusion, freeze pelletization, cryopelletization have been discussed along with formulation requirements for the process, parameters affecting pelletization. Evaluation of quality of the pellets is discussed with...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2011 in |
The convenience of administration and improved patient compliance are important in the design of nasal drug delivery system which remains the preferred route of drug delivery in spite of various disadvantages. Therapy through intranasal administration has been an accepted form of treatment in the Ayurvedic system of Indian Medicine. Advances in biotechnology have made available a large number of protein and peptide drug for the treatment of a variety of diseases. These drugs are unsuitable for oral administration because they are significantly degraded in the gastrointestinal tract or considerably metabolized by first pass effect in the liver. Even the parenteral route is inconvenient for long term therapy. Of many alternate routes tried, intranasal drug delivery is found much promising for administration of these drugs. In this article, an overview on the design and development of intranasal drug delivery system is presented. Advantages of NDDS are Drug degradation that is observed in the gastrointestinal tract is absent, hepatic first pass metabolism is absent, Rapid drug absorption and quick onset of...
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