Lipid Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Systems: Approaches toward Improvement in Therapeutic Efficacy of Bioactive Molecules

Hybrid lipid polymers significantly changed the postulation of low or less bioavailability of conventional drug delivery systems. Several drug delivery systems already exist for the encapsulation and subsequent release of lipophilic drugs with enhanced therapeutic efficacy and are well described in the scientific literature. Among these, lipid polymer-based nanoparticles have specifically come up for dermal, transdermal, mucosal, intramuscular, and ocular drug administration routes in the last 20 years. Moreover, lipid nanoparticles showed potential for active targeting of anticancer therapy, delivery of DNA or RNA materials, and use as a diagnostic imaging agent. Therefore, the multifarious nanostructured lipid carriers can reduce the undesired effects with maximum utilization of active moiety. In this, chapter a brief discussion is presented on the source of synthetic and natural lipid polymers with the use of surfactants. Moreover, a summary on formulation and pharmaceutical characterization of nanostructured lipid carriers considering solid lipid nanoparticles and vesicular drug delivery systems has been taken into consideration. In addition, a light on bioactive fortified with lipid nanoparticles was reviewed for maximizing its therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, this chapter’s focus to bring out the latest applications via recent scientific publications from the Scopus database on nanostructure carriers that showed promising application for the treatments of potentially life-threatening diseases has been summarized.