Manufacturing Techniques for Nanoparticles in Drug Delivery

Nanotechnology has become a key strategy for manufacturing products in numerous fields such as medicine, food, cosmetics, clothing, art, and different engineering areas (chemical, agricultural, petroleum, among others). Undoubtedly, nanoparticles (NPs) have significantly impacted on the development of novel medicines, increasingly becoming a central element for diagnosing, preventing, and treating a large number of acute and chronic diseases. In this evolving scenario, both academic laboratories and the pharmaceutical industry have explored different approaches to prepare NPs for drug delivery purposes, which can be generally divided into two main categories: the bottom-up and top-down techniques. Whereas the first group implies building up the particles from dissolved molecules or monomers, the latter involves applying energy to break down large particles, leading to colloidal materials with particle sizes in the submicrometer scale. Among the various nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems available, polymeric and lipid NPs, together with drug nanocrystals, have revolutionized modern medicine, providing innovative therapeutic alternatives for various diseases. This chapter describes the specific bottom-up and top-down techniques used to obtain such nanosystems.