ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology is dened as “the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of 1-100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications” [9,10]. The nanometer size range is suitable for manipulation at the molecular level, with potential applications in drug delivery, imaging, and diagnosis of diseases such as cancer [2,21]. Drugs and imaging agents can be encapsulated in, adsorbed on, or conjugated to nanometer-size delivery systems. Nanodelivery systems include lipid-based carriers such as liposomes (vesicles in which an aqueous volume is surrounded by bilayer membrane), micelles (self-assembling amphiphiles that form supramolecular core-shell structures), dendrimers (polymers that comprise a series of well-dened branches around an inner core), and polymeric nanoparticles, including nanospheres and nanocapsules [25].
