A REVIEW ON MICROSPHERES AS A NOVEL CONTROLLED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Abstract

Over the past three decades, controlled drug delivery systems have become more developed and play a key role in pharmaceuticals formulations. There are many shortcomings in Traditional or Conventional drug delivery systems like for maintaining desired therapeutic drug plasma concentration there is a need for frequent dosing for particular drugs having shorter half-lives. Furthermore, because of frequent dosing requirement, there is poor patient compliance which causes fluctuation in plasma concentration of the drug. The limitations of conventional drug delivery can be overcome by the development of novel drug delivery systems, of which the controlled drug delivery can maintain constant drug plasma concentration by slowly releasing the drug over an extended period. Developing controlled drug delivery systems can also improve the systemic bioavailability of the drug, thus enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of the drug and better patient compliance. There are many different approaches for such controlled delivery systems such as liposomes, niosomes, ethosomes, phytosomes, microemulsion, and microspheres. Among all the approaches microspheres are more convenient as the drug is slowly released from the polymeric matrix and the polymers used are mostly biodegradable and possess no side effects. Therefore, microspheres can be used in various medicinal departments such as oncology, gynecology, radiology, pulmonary, cardiology, diabetes, and vaccine therapy. This review article focuses on recent different types of microspheres along with their methods of preparation. The microspheres formulated can be later evaluated and characterized by different procedures.