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Updated: Nov 24, 2025

Spatio-Temporal In Vivo Imaging of Ocular Drug Delivery Systems using Fiberoptic Confocal Laser Microendoscopy
Published on: September 27, 2021
Local drug delivery systems for inflammatory diseases: Status quo, challenges, and opportunities
Yun-Chu Chen1, Sheryhan F Gad2, Dhawal Chobisa3
1Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy, Purdue University, 575 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Abstract:
Inflammation that is not resolved in due course becomes a chronic disease. The treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases involves a long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, often accompanied by dose-dependent side effects. Local drug delivery systems have been widely explored to reduce their off-target side effects and the medication frequency, with several products making to the market or in development over the years. However, numerous challenges remain, and drug delivery technology is underutilized in some applications. This review showcases local drug delivery systems in different inflammatory diseases, including the targets well-known to drug delivery scientists (e.g., joints, eyes, and teeth) and other applications with untapped opportunities (e.g., sinus, bladder, and colon). In each section, we start with a brief description of the disease and commonly used therapy, introduce local drug delivery systems currently on the market or in the development stage, focusing on polymeric systems, and discuss the remaining challenges and opportunities in future product development.
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