Nanosponges: A New Era in Drug Delivery : Review

Effective targeted drug delivery has been a long-held ambition but they are restricted in their utility due to several major drawbacks. The advent of nanotechnology lead to invention of many dosage forms, to circumvent the above limitations, a practical approach has been developed for the formation of discrete functionalized particles, which have been termed as ‘nanosponges’. Nanosponges are tiny particles about a size of virus which can be loaded with wide variety of drugs. These tiny particles circulate within the body until they reach a particular target site and release the drug in a predictable and controlled manner, because of which they will be more effective for a particular given dosage. Another advantage of nanosponges is that their good aqueous solubility, hence making them carriers for poorly water soluble drugs. Nanosponges hold a promising future in various pharmaceutical applications. This article attempts to give an introduction about nanosponges, their method of preparation, their characterization, and their applications in drug delivery.