ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the applications of polymeric nanoparticle-based delivery systems in disease diagnosis and imaging as well as target-specific delivery of drugs and genes in the body. Polymeric nanoparticles represent a unique class of delivery system that can be designed specifically for the disease targeting and serve to carry a range of payloads. Nanoparticle-based drug-delivery systems thus continue to evolve and are the subject of ongoing trials in several areas of disease targeting and treatment. The polymers used for preparation of nanoparticles intended for biomedical applications, such as targeted delivery, imaging and therapeutic agents, must fulfill many requirements. Solvent displacement is one of the simplest yet reliable techniques to yield nanoparticles of small size and narrow size distribution. Nanoparticles labeled with either diagnostic or therapeutic radionuclides have been produced by methods using physical entrapment of the radionuclide in the carrier matrix.
