Drug carriers are substances that serve as mechanisms to improve the delivery and the effectiveness of drugs. Drug carriers are used in sundry drug delivery

Drug delivery

Drug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Drug delivery technologies modify drug release profile, absorption, distribution and elimination for the benefit of improving product efficacy and safety, as well...

 systems such as:

• controlled-release technology to prolong in vivo
  In vivo
  In vivo is experimentation using a whole, living organism as opposed to a partial or dead organism, or an in vitro controlled environment. Animal testing and clinical trials are two forms of in vivo research...
  
   drug actions;
• decrease drug metabolism
  Drug metabolism
  Drug metabolism is the biochemical modification of pharmaceutical substances by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. This is a form of xenobiotic metabolism. Drug metabolism often converts lipophilic chemical compounds into more readily excreted polar products...
  
  , and
• reduce drug toxicity
  Toxicity
  Toxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage a living or non-living organisms. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell or an organ , such as the liver...
  
  .

Carriers are also used in designs to increase the effectiveness of drug delivery to the target sites of pharmacological actions.

Examples

Carriers which are able to biodegrade include:

• Liposome
  Liposome
  Liposomes are artificially prepared vesicles made of lipid bilayer. Liposomes can be filled with drugs, and used to deliver drugs for cancer and other diseases. Liposomes are composite structures made of phospholipids and may contain small amounts of other molecules...
  
  s;
• Microsphere
  Microsphere
  Microsphere are small spherical particles, with diameters in the micrometer range . Microspheres are sometimes referred to as microparticles....
  
  s made of the biodegradable polymer poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid
• albumin
  Human serum albumin
  Human serum albumin is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma. It is produced in the liver. Albumin constitutes about half of the blood serum protein...
  
   microsphere
  Microsphere
  Microsphere are small spherical particles, with diameters in the micrometer range . Microspheres are sometimes referred to as microparticles....
  
  s;
• synthetic polymer
  Synthetic polymer
  Synthetic polymers are often referred to as "plastics", such as the well-known polyethylene and nylon. However, most of them can be classified in at least three main categories: thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers....
  
  s (soluble);
• nanofiber
  Nanofiber
  Nanofibers are defined as fibers with diameters less than 1000 nm nanometers. They can be produced by interfacial polymerization and electrospinning...
  
  s;
• Protein-DNA complexes;
• protein conjugate
  Conjugated system
  In chemistry, a conjugated system is a system of connected p-orbitals with delocalized electrons in compounds with alternating single and multiple bonds, which in general may lower the overall energy of the molecule and increase stability. Lone pairs, radicals or carbenium ions may be part of the...
  
  s;
• erythrocytes
• virosome
  Virosome
  A virosome is a drug or vaccine delivery mechanism consisting of unilamellar phospholipid bilayer vesicle incorporating virus derived proteins to allow the virosomes to fuse with target cells...
  
  s

Resources

The following research papers from IUPAC are in pdf format:

• Biodegradable hydrogels for bone regeneration through growth factor release
• Development of acid-sensitive copolymer micelles for drug delivery

External links

• Weighting cancer drugs to make them hit tumors harder PhysOrg.com
  PhysOrg.com
  PhysOrg is a popular science, research and technology news website specializing in the hard science subjects of physics, space and earth science, biology, chemistry, electronics, nanotechnology and technology in general. It is known for timely updates of scientific breakthroughs and press releases...
  
  article
• Designing Better Cancer Drugs Provides insight into carrier molecules' functionality which may yield safer cancer treatments.