ABSTRACT
Nanoscale biomaterials are designed to enhance a drug’s therapeutic eŸects while minimizing the toxicity that would be caused by delivery of the drug alone. Materials used to encapsulate drugs are o¹en referred to as “nanoparticles” or “nanocarriers” because of their size and function. In this chapter, we discuss nanocarrier functions such as shielding the drug from the immune system, targeting the drug to a speci™c location in the body, controlling the release of a drug, or reacting to a particular microenvironment to trigger drug release (Table 11.1). We discuss these functions in the context of three material systems commonly used in drug delivery-liposomes, polymers, and metals. We then discuss multifunctional nanocarriers, which are at the forefront of current drug delivery technology.
