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 systems such as:

• controlled-release technology to prolong in vivo drug actions;
• decrease drug metabolism, and
• reduce drug toxicity.

Carriers are also used in designs to increase the effectiveness of drug delivery to the target sites of pharmacological actions. In vivo (Latin for (with)in the living). ... Drug metabolism is the metabolism of drugs, their biochemical modification or degradation, usually through specialized enzymatic systems. ... Look up toxic and toxicity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Examples

Carriers which are able to biodegrade include: Biodegradation is the decomposition of organic material by microorganisms. ...

• Liposomes;
• albumin microspheres;
• synthetic polymers (soluble);
• Protein-DNA complexes;
• protein conjugates; and
• erythrocytes.

A liposome is a spherical vesicle with a membrane composed of a phospholipid bilayer used to deliver drugs or genetic material into a cell. ... You may be looking for albumen, or egg white. ... Microspheres or protein protocells are small spherical units postulated by some scientists as a key stage in the origin of life. ... Synthetic polymers are often referred to as plastics, such as the well-known polyethylene and nylon. ... A chemically conjugated system, is a system of atoms covalently bonded with alternating single and double bonds (e. ... Human red blood cells Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and are the vertebrate bodys principal means of delivering oxygen to body tissues via the blood. ...

See also

• Bioavailability
• Drug design
• Nanoparticle

In pharmacology, bioavailability is used to describe the fraction of an administered dose of medication that reaches the systemic circulation, one of the principal pharmacokinetic properties of drugs. ... Drug design is the approach of finding drugs by design, based on what the drug is targeting. ... Silicon nanopowder A nanoparticle is a microscopic particle whose size is measured in nanometres (nm). ...

Resources

The following research papers from IUPAC are in pdf format: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is an international non-governmental organization devoted to the advancement of chemistry. ...

• 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 article
• Designing Better Cancer Drugs Provides insight into carrier molecules' functionality which may yield safer cancer treatments.