Nanotechnology in drug delivery for malaria and tuberculosis treatment

© 2009 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Nanotechnology has gained ground in the twenty-first century and is rapidly growing due to the ability to manipulate and harness properties of assemblies that are at the nanosize scale of various biomolecules. In addition, nanotechnology allows scientists to alter the chemical, physical, and biological properties of these assemblies, allowing for their synthesis at a controlled size range of 1 to 500 nm. When combined with other biotechnology tools such as bioinformatics, imaging, and systems biology, nanotechnology holds great promises to address challenges faced in the field of drug development and delivery. Nanotechnology may be used to modify other factors such as localized drug delivery, site-specific activity, periods of maintenance within the body, patient compliance, as well as adverse drug effects. If these factors are not controlled, they may eventually lead to lowered drug efficacy. The challenges for site-specific delivery are the cellular barriers, which prevent the drug from reaching the desired target [1], thus presenting a need for a carrier system that will overcome this effect.