Development of Essential Oil Delivery Systems by 'Click Chemistry' Methods: Possible Ways to Manage Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Materials (Basel). 2023 Oct 2;16(19):6537. doi: 10.3390/ma16196537.

Abstract

Recently, rare diseases have received attention due to the need for improvement in diagnosed patients' and their families' lives. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare, severe, progressive, muscle-wasting disease. Today, the therapeutic standard for treating DMD is corticosteroids, which cause serious adverse side effects. Nutraceuticals, e.g., herbal extracts or essential oils (EOs), are possible active substances to develop new drug delivery systems to improve DMD patients' lives. New drug delivery systems lead to new drug effects, improved safety and accuracy, and new therapies for rare diseases. Herbal extracts and EOs combined with click chemistry can lead to the development of safer treatments for DMD. In this review, we focus on the need for novel drug delivery systems using EOs as the therapy for DMD and the potential use of click chemistry for drug delivery systems. New EO complex drug delivery systems may offer a new approach for improving muscle conditions and mental health issues associated with DMD. However, further research should identify the potential of these systems in the context of DMD. In this review, we discuss possibilities for applying EOs to DMD before implementing expensive research in a theoretical way.

Keywords: Duchenne muscular dystrophy; click chemistry; drug conjugate; essential oil; muscle-wasting disease; muscular dystrophy; nanotechnology; phytotherapy; safeguard; targeted drug delivery system.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.