Nano Lipid Carriers as a Promising Drug Delivery Carrier for Neurodegenerative Disorders - An Overview of Recent Advances

Recent Pat Biotechnol. 2024;18(1):2-21. doi: 10.2174/1872208317666230320164219.

Abstract

The last few decades have seen a rise in the number of deaths caused by neurological disorders. The blood-brain barrier (BBB), which is very complex and has multiple mechanisms, makes drug delivery to the brain challenging for many scientists. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) such as nanoemulsions, solid-lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, and nano lipid carriers (NLCs) exhibit enhanced bioavailability and flexibility among these nanocarriers. NLCs are found to be very effective. In the last few decades, they have been a center of attraction for controlled drug delivery. According to the current global status of specific neurological disorders, out of all LNPs, NLC significantly reduces the cross-permeability of drugs through the BBB due to their peculiar properties. They offer a host of advantages over other carriers because of their biocompatibility, safety, non-toxicity, non-irritating behavior, stability, high encapsulation efficiency, high drug loading, high drug targeting, control of drug release, and ease in manufacturing. The biocompatible lipid matrix is ideally suited as a drug carrier system due to the nano-size range. For certain neurological conditions such as Parkinsonism, Alzheimer's, Epilepsy, Multiple sclerosis, and Brain cancer, we examined recent advances in NLCs to improve brain targeting of bioactive with special attention to formulation aspects and pharmacokinetic characteristics. This article also provides a brief overview of a critical approach for brain targeting, i.e., direct nose-to-brain drug delivery and some recent patents published on NLC".

Keywords: Neurological disorder; blood-brain barrier; drug delivery.; lipid matrix; modified release; nano lipid carrier.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Brain
  • Drug Carriers*
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Humans
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases* / drug therapy
  • Patents as Topic

Substances

  • Drug Carriers