Recent advances in polymer shell oily-core nanocapsules for drug-delivery applications

• Published in: Nanomedicine (London, England) Vol. 16; no. 18; pp. 1613 - 1625
• Main Authors: AbdElhamid, Ahmed S, Zayed, Dina G, Heikal, Lamia, Khattab, Sherine N, Mady, Omar Y, El-Gizawy, Sanaa A, Elzoghby, Ahmed O
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Future Medicine Ltd 01.08.2021
• Subjects: drug delivery; hydrophobic drugs; nanocapsules; oily-core nanocapsules; polymeric nanocapsules
• ISSN: 1743-5889; 1748-6963
• DOI: 10.2217/nnm-2021-0037

Polymeric nanocapsules are vesicular drug-delivery systems composed of an inner oily reservoir surrounded by polymeric membranes. Nanocapsules have various advantages over other nanovesicular systems such as providing controlled drug release properties. We discuss the recent advances in polymeric shell oily-core nanocapsules, illustrating the different types of polymers used and their implementation. Nanocapsules can be utilized for many purposes, especially encapsulation of highly lipophilic drugs. They have been shown to have variable applications, especially in cancer therapy, due to the ability of the polymeric shell to direct the loaded drugs to their target sites, as well as their high internalization efficacy. Those productive applications guaranteed their high potential as drug-delivery systems. However, their clinical development is still in an early stage.