Nanocrystals- A Substantial Platform for Drug Delivery Applications

Poor solubility of a drug is one of the major concerns in drug delivery. Many strategies have been employed for solving this problem, but there are still some deficiencies with current strategies, such as low drug loading, high toxicity, poor stability, potential drug loss during storage, and complex manufacturing method. By formulating nanocrystals, problems associated with the delivery of drugs with low water or lipid solubility can be addressed. Unlike polymeric nanoparticles and lipidic nanoparticles, they are not reservoir or matrix systems. Nanocrystals are colloidal suspensions of nanosized particles stabilized by polymeric or electrostatic stabilization. They can be prepared by Top-down or Bottom-up approaches. Some of the methods for the preparation of nanocrystals are nanoprecipitation, media milling, high-pressure homogenization, emulsions and microemulsions as templates, supercritical fluid technology, and co-grinding. They can be used for oral, intravenous, ocular, inhalation, intramuscular drug delivery and drug targeting.