Abstract

Background: Nanotechnology deals with the manufacturing of materials at the atomic and molecular scale. According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, nanotechnology denotes those structures which are nearly in 1−100 nm size regime in at least one dimension.

Objective: Nanotechnology in drug delivery has been evidenced into nanocarriers that possess distinct properties both in vitro and in vivo, which may be used in targeting drugs to various diseases especially tumors. In the last few years, there has been a keen concern in the formulation of various new drug delivery systems employing nanotechnology. Different nanodevices or nanocarriers like liposomes, dendrimers, polymersomes, transfersomes, and nanoparticles etc. have been employed for the targeted drug delivery.

Conclusion: This review summarizes the advances in nanocarriers in terms of their methods of preparation and potential applications especially in tumors.

Keywords: Nanotechnology, nanocarriers, targeting, dug delivery, tumors.

Graphical Abstract