The oral route is the preferential route of drug delivery in humans. However, effective delivery through the gastrointestinal tract is often hampered by the low permeability of the intestinal epithelium. One possibility to overcome this problem is the encapsulation of drugs inside nanoparticulate systems, containing targeting moieties with cell invasive properties. The bioinvasive features of t...

recently, specific attention has been paid to aptamers, short dna or rna, as a tool for cancer diagnosis and therapy. in the present study mcs nanogels were prepared by myristate: chitosan at 1:9 ratio and were characterized by several techniques. a selected ssdna aptamer(apt) capable of detecting lncap cells was linked to myristilated chitosan nanogels (apt-mcs) by glutaraldehyde and loaded wi...

a multiple-unit oral floating system was prepared using the emulsification-solvent diffusion method to prolong the gastric emptying time of theophylline. for this purpose, theophylline, ethyl cellulose and dibutyl phthalate were dissolved in an ethanol/dichloromethane mixture, added to 0.1 m hcl containing nacl (20%) or saturated theophylline and/or different concentrations of polysorbate 80 an...

gamma-scintigraphy is applied extensively in the development and evaluation of pharmaceutical delivery systems, particularly for monitoring formulations in the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts. the radiolabelling is generally achieved by the incorporation of an appropriate radionuclide such as technetium-99m or indium-111 into the formulation or by addition of a non-radioactive isotope s...

the rapidly increasing interest in functional materials with reversibly switchable physico- chemical properties has led to significant work on the development of stimuli responsive membranes. thermotropic liquid crystals with their exceptional properties have potentials for drug-delivery applications. thermoresponsive liquid-crystal-embedded membranes were investigated for the purpose of develo...

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of intestinal disorders which cause prolonged digestive tract inflammation. The early diagnosis IBD through the detection its biomarkers (including tumor necrosis factor alpha, C-reactive protein, cytokines and microRNAs) imaging agents challenge. Nanotechnology enabled biosensors enhanced image contrasting chemicals for offer promises an affordable, ...

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, novel drug delivery systems comprising orally administered nanoparticles (NPs) have been paid increasing attention in recent years. The bioavailability of orally administered drugs has significant influence on drug efficacy and therapeutic dosage, and it is therefore imperative that the intestinal absorption of oral NPs be investigated. This review ...

Oral bioavailability of some drugs can be limited by the residence time of pharmaceutical formulation in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Gastric emptying plays an important role in the dynamics of drug absorption and can lead to variable and unpredictable bioavailability. And it becomes more critical for drugs which are exclusively absorbed in the upper small intestine or in a limited segment...

We need to look beyond our gut instincts to use information on "simple" intestinal physiological parameters as they have been presented to us in the past. Here we present a discussion on such parameters, old and new, and ask how much we really understand them. Behaviour of drugs and delivery systems in the intestine depends on many physiological factors including fluid volume, fluid composition...