title: Nanoparticles: a boon to drug delivery, therapeutics, diagnostics and imaging.
abstract: Drug delivery is an interdisciplinary and independent field of research and is gaining the attention of pharmaceutical researchers, medical doctors and industry. A safe and targeted drug delivery could improve the performance of some classic medicines already on the market, and moreover, will have implications for the development and success of new therapeutic strategies such as anticancer drug delivery, peptide and protein delivery and gene therapy. In the last decade, several drug-delivery technologies have emerged and a fascinating part of this field is the development of nanoscale drug delivery devices. Nanoparticles (NPs) have been developed as an important strategy to deliver conventional drugs, recombinant proteins, vaccines and more recently, nucleotides. NPs and other colloidal drug-delivery systems modify the kinetics, body distribution and drug release of an associated drug. This review article focuses on the potential of nanotechnology in medicine and discusses different nanoparticulate drug-delivery systems including polymeric NPs, ceramic NPs, magnetic NPs, polymeric micelles and dendrimers as well as their applications in therapeutics, diagnostics and imaging.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  This comprehensive review focuses on different nanoparticulate drug-delivery systems including polymeric NPs, ceramic NPs, magnetic NPs, polymeric micelles and dendrimers as well as their applications in therapeutics, diagnostics and imaging.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Nanomedicine, Institute of Life Sciences, Nalco Square, Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar, India.
authors.forename: Suphiya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parveen
authors.forename: Ranjita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.forename: Sanjeeb K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sahoo
mesh_terms: D050091:Dendrimers / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008823:Micelles; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010455:Peptides / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014612:Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D050091:Dendrimers; D008823:Micelles; D009711:Nucleotides; D010455:Peptides; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014612:Vaccines