MAGNETIC MICROSPHERE AS NOVEL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: A REVIEW

A therapeutic amount of drug at proper site in the body and its maintenance for a specific period of time are controlled by a well-designed drug system. A number of drug delivery systems hold great promises for achieving the goal of controlled and site specific drug delivery, one of them is magnetic microsphere, a novel drug delivery system. Novel drug delivery system has been advanced to achieve controlled and targeted drug delivery to meet the needs of the body during the period of treatment. Magnetic microsphere, a newer approach in pharmaceutical field is magnetically controlled releasable supramolecular particles having a particle size ranging from 1-1000 μm. A number of limitations facing current methods of delivering medicines areovercome by using a novel approach of magnetic drug delivery which uses engineered microcarriers. Magnetic microsphere drug delivery system is captured in microvessels and dragged into adjacent tissues by magnetic field of below 1.0 tesla. Magnetic responses are received by magnetic carriers to a magnetic field from incorporated materials like chitosan, dextran etc. that are used for magnetic microspheres. Various carrier materials can be used in magnetic microsphere, one of the most utilized is serum albumin from human. Thus, the problem of conventional therapy can be overcome by a well-designed controlled drug delivery system. Microsphere drug delivery system has eminent importance as it has wide applications ranging from drug targeting at a specific site to imaging the diagnostic features and also in targeting tumours using anticancer drugs. It is more stable than liposomes, offering an advantage over it. The review shall include definitions, concepts, types, characteristics, advantage as well as methods and techniques used in preparations it will also entail various applications and future prospects of magnetic microspheres as a novel drug delivery system.