The role of mechanical engineering in the development of nano drug delivery systems; a review

The pharmaceutical area can present some opportunities for mechanical engineers to develop a vast type of dosage forms particularly novel forms like nanoparticles. The classical education of mechanics needs some alterations to prepare appropriate education courses in this regard. In order to present some views about this issue, we collect some information around the importance of mechanical engineering in the designing of nano-based drug delivery systems. A review process was performed using National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) by means of MeSH keywords such as mechanical engineering, pharmaceutical dosage form, drug delivery system, nanoparticles and nanotechnology. The searches included full-text publications written in English, published in PubMed central over a 10-year period (2006-2016). The abstracts, reviews, books with no experimental data as well as studies without explicit involving of mechanical engineering in the designing of drug delivery systems were excluded from the analysis. The reviewed literature revealed that there is good progress in application of mechanical engineering in the designing of nano-based drug delivery systems in recent years. However, more clinically and in vivo attempts are needed in this regard. This information may present some beneficial views for graduate students as well as academic curriculum designers about the importance of mechanical engineers in pharmaceutical area.