Recent Trends of Biocompatible and Biodegradable Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery: A Review

A vast amount of research on nanoparticles has been conducted in recent years with versatile applications in the field of drug delivery systems. Nanoparticles are designed as a carrier molecule to deliver drugs in a sustained and stimuli response manner. Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to the development of long circulating nanoparticles with high encapsulation efficiency. This article focuses on the properties such as biocompatibility and biodegradability, which are considered as essential criteria for nanoparticles to be successfully used as a carrier molecule in drug delivery systems. Physicochemical characterization of the nanoparticles such as size and size distribution, surface morphology, zeta potential and surface chemistry has a significant role in the successful formulation and applications in drug delivery systems. Mostly, the size and surface characteristics of nanoparticles enable enhanced intracellular accumulation in tumor cells through passive targeting mechanisms and rapid development of nanoengineering, and aid towards attaining active targeting delivery by co-functionalization of nanoparticles using appropriate targeting ligands. This article reviews the recent progress and development of employing different biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticles in drug delivery systems. It also briefly recaps the important methods available to evaluate its biocompatibility, the mechanism of biodegradability and clearance properties of NPs.