Current strategies for engineering drug nanoparticles

Engineering drug itself in nanoparticulate form has emerged as a new strategy for the delivery of hydrophobic drugs due to their unique advantages over colloidal drug carriers. The current review outlines the importance and the potential of drug nanoparticles and emphasizes upon the various technologies that have been addressed in literature. Among the technologies investigated so far, media milling and high-pressure homogenization have been very well studied. Moreover, they have enabled successful commercialization of drug nanoparticles. Recently, the engineering of drug nanoparticles using microemulsification, supercritical fluids, aerosols and reactive precipitation has been successfully achieved.