Nanocapsules for Drug Delivery: An Updated Review of the Last Decade

Background: For the past few decades, there has been considerable research interest in drug delivery strategies using nanoparticulate systems as carriers for a wide range of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Objective: It is known that nanoparticulate drug delivery systems comprise a wide variety of dosage forms including nanospheres, micelles, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanoliposomes, dendrimers, magnetic nanoparticles, and nanocapsules. Methods: This review describes nanocapsule preparation techniques and their applications for the treatment of several diseases using patents and examples from the literature. Results: Nanocapsules are vesicular systems consisting of an inner liquid core (aqueous/oily) surrounded by a polymeric wall that has immense potential as drug carriers because of the many advantages like improving poor aqueous solubility, stabilizing drugs by protecting the molecule from the environment, providing the desired pharmacokinetic profile, allowing controlled release, as well as facilitating oral administration. Conclusion: The present study discusses and summarizes patents related to preparation methods of and recent studies from the last 10 years on nanocapsules as drug delivery systems.