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@article{190603,
        author = {Ritesh Narendra Bardekar},
        title = {Nanocarriers for Targeted Drug Delivery: Recent Advances, Design Strategies, and Clinical Applications},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {8},
        pages = {3543-3553},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=190603},
        abstract = {Drug delivery remains a cornerstone of modern pharmacotherapy, yet conventional administration routes such as oral, parenteral, pulmonary, and transdermal often suffer from poor bioavailability, rapid clearance, and systemic toxicity. These limitations have driven the development of targeted drug delivery (TDD) systems, which aim to concentrate therapeutic agents at diseased tissues while sparing healthy ones. Nanotechnology has revolutionized this field by enabling the design of nanocarriers with unique physicochemical properties, including high surface to volume ratios, tunable size, and multifunctionality.
This review provides a comprehensive overview of nanocarrier based drug delivery, beginning with conventional methods and their limitations, followed by design strategies such as passive targeting via the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, active targeting through ligand–receptor interactions, inverse targeting, physical stimuli responsive systems, and advanced dual and double targeting approaches. The paper then explores the diverse classes of nanocarriers, including organic systems (liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, dendrimers, micelles), inorganic systems (carbon nanotubes, graphene, gold nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots), and hybrid multifunctional platforms.
Mechanisms of drug loading and release are discussed in detail, covering encapsulation, adsorption, conjugation, release kinetics models, and stimuli responsive strategies. Clinical applications are highlighted across oncology, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, pulmonary diseases, and emerging areas such as gene therapy, vaccines, and theragnostic. The review also addresses challenges including toxicity, biocompatibility, scale up, regulatory hurdles, and variability between preclinical and clinical outcomes.
Finally, future perspectives emphasize personalized nanomedicine, theragnostic nanocarriers, smart multifunctional systems, and integration with artificial intelligence and digital health. Together, these advances position nanocarrier based targeted drug delivery as a transformative approach in medicine, capable of improving therapeutic efficacy, reducing toxicity, and enabling precision healthcare worldwide.},
        keywords = {Nanocarriers, Targeted Drug Delivery, Liposomes, Polymeric Nanoparticles, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLN), Dendrimers, Micelles, Carbon Nanotubes, Gold Nanoparticles, Magnetic Nanoparticles, Quantum Dots, Hybrid Nanocarriers, Stimuli Responsive Systems, Theragnostic, Personalized Nanomedicine, Controlled Release, Drug Loading Mechanisms, Clinical Applications, Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Neurological Disorders, Pulmonary Drug Delivery, Artificial Intelligence in Nanomedicine.},
        month = {January},
        }