What is the Future for nanocrystal-based drug-delivery Systems?

Abstract

Nanocrystals are used as a drug-delivery platform for poorly water-soluble drugs and have had commercial success in oral drug delivery. We assert that the future of this technique is with cancer treatment and in the development of parenteral preparations. Advances in techniques for uniform and high-quality nanocrystals as well as deciphering the in vivo fate of nanocrystals are critical. The bottom-up technique allows for better control of particle properties, while the hybrid nanocrystal technique provides a novel approach to explore the in vivo fate of nanocrystals. Breakthroughs in these two techniques to further the development of nanocrystals are also discussed.

Keywords:

• bottom-up
• cancer
• in vivo fate
• nanocrystals
• nucleation
• parenteral delivery
• particle size

Author contributions

Z Chen drafted the work, W Wu did conceptualization and Y Lu did conceptualization and revising.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors receive funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973247, 81872815, 81872826 and 81690263) and Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (19430741400, 19410761200, 19XD1400300) to support this work. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.