A Review on Potential of Proteins as an Excipient for Developing a Nano-Carrier Delivery System

In neo-age research, nano-materials have emerged as potential tools for the revolution of diagnostic and therapeutic field because of their nano-scale effects, increased surface area-volume ratio, and other beneficial properties. For the last few decades, protein has been regarded as the most attractive and versatile natural bio-macromolecule among all of the available biopolymers. Protein is largely exploited as a nano-carrier system in the pharmaceutical industry due to its low cytotoxocity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, abundant renewable sources, significant attaching ability, clinically useful targeting, and site-specific efficient uptake. This review mainly emphasizes on the latest development and progress achieved in the utilization of protein as a nano-vehicle for a large number of therapeutics such as drugs, genes, hormones, enzymse, nutraceuticals, antibodies, peptides, etc. We also discuss the sources of protein materials, fabrication aspects, advantages, constraints, in vivo and in vitro studies and provide a comparative analysis between the different types of proteins as nano-carriers. The variation of the release pattern and molecular mechanism of the encapsulated molecule with respect to different protein types and various nano-structures are also highlighted here to explore the enormous promises of this novel approach.