Advances in Drug Delivery Systems, from 0 to 3D superstructures

Nanomedicine is currently exploited for manufacturing therapeutic DDS and treatments protocols for various diseases and disorders. To obtain DDS, different types of materials are used, from organic to inorganic, polar to non-polar, micro to nanomaterials from 0D to 3D structured materials, respectively. Many of these materials were extensively studied and reviewed in the literature.

The objectives of this review is to make a clear overview on drug delivery systems depending several aspects related to delivery mechanisms, the type of supports, the active agents ant the potential applications in the prevention or treatment of various diseases.

Following aspects are extensively debated: synthesis issues, characteristics and potential uses of 0, 1, 2 and 3D drug delivery systems according to their nature and applications. These systems can be can be tailored according to the delivery mechanism (0-3D delivery) as well as by using more active agents, with more therapeutic activity or same activity but with different mechanisms of action. The size and morphology of the drug delivery system is essential, especially when talking about the internalization into the tumor cells while the mobility is especially dependent on the size. The influence of the nature of the supports and their polarity was extensively studied during the last decades, as well as the importance of the porosity and pore size, but only limited papers are devoted to the holistic analysis of the dimensionality of the support and the ways of delivering the active agents.

This review is devoted to a holistic insight into the drug delivery systems, from a new, only marginally studied point of view, meaning the dimensionality of the drug delivery systems and the characteristics of the delivery.