NANOSTRUCTURED LIPID CARRIERS –A PROMISING CARRIER FOR IMPROVING ORAL BIOAVAILABILITY OF DRUGS

To deliver both conventional as well as novel drugs, the oral route was considered as the most preferable one because it reduces patient’s non-compliance, well accepted by the patients, and can also eliminate the discomfort and pain accompanied by parenteral preparations. Even while oral formulations offer numerous advantages, several drawbacks substantially affect bioavailability. In recent years, lipid-based drug delivery techniques have gained more prominence over other nano-based techniques due to their high biocompatibility and increased bioavailability. Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are one of the lipid-based carriers developed to overcome some major limitations accompanied by solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) by replacing specific quantity of solid lipid with liquid lipid. Nanostructured lipid carrier based researches reveal that they can be the most propitious carrier to enhance oral bioavailability of  lipophilic as well as hydrophilic drugs This review mainly focuses on some common barriers that affect the bioavailability of orally administered drugs and provide brief explanation of NLC types, components and fabrication method used in NLC formulations. The present review emphasizes the dominance of NLCs over solid lipid nanoparticles. This review further explains the mechanism of how NLCs improve the oral bioavailability of drugs.