Ultrasonic Treatment of Nanoparticles for Pharmaceuticals

Ultrasound is an innovative technology that is used successfully for sonochemical synthesis, deagglomeration, dispersion, emulsifying, functionalization and activation of particles. Particularly in nanotechnology, the ultrasonication is an essential technique for the synthesis and processing purposes of nano-size materials. Since nanotechnology has gained this outstanding scientific interest, nano-sized particles are utilized in extraordinarily many scientific and industrial fields. Also the pharma branch has discovered the high potential of this flexible and variable material. Consequently, nanoparticles are involved into various functional applications in the pharmaceutical industry, these include: • drug delivery (carrier) • diagnostic products • product packaging • biomarker discovery As nanomaterials are defined as particles with a dimension less than 100nm this means that the production and processing of these substances require higher efforts. Especially, drug delivery via nanoparticles is already a proven method for delivering active agents which have been administered before oral or by injection. (Bawa 2008) Nanoformulated drugs can be dosed and delivered much more efficient as new techniques open completely novel ways of medical treatments. This high-potential technology helps delivering drugs, heat, or other active substances to specific cells, i.e. diseased cells. By this direct drug delivery, healthy cells are untroubled by drug effects. One field, in that nanoformulated drugs already show their promising results is the cancer therapy. In the cancer therapy it is the big advantage of nano-sized substances that high doses of drug molecules can be delivered directly to the tumor cells for maximum effects while minimizing side effects to other organs. (Liu et al.2008) This advantage results in the nano-size by that the particles are able to pass cell walls and membranes and release the drug’s active agents directly at the targeted cells.