Advanced particulate carrier-mediated technologies for nasal drug delivery

Nasal drug delivery has been employed as an alternate and convenient route for the systemic availability of pharmaceuticals, particularly for potent therapeutics. This is owing to the large surface area, highly permeable endothelium membrane, high total blood flow, lack of first-pass metabolism, nose-to-brain targeting, and ease of access to the nasal cavity. There are several methods for delivering medicinal agents to the targeted site in a defined and sustained release pattern. Microparticles and nanoparticlesplay a crucial role in particulate drug delivery systems because of their small size and other efficient properties such as drug stabilization, controlled release, mucoadhesion, higher mucus/tissue permeability, and subsequently improved pharmacological effect oftherapeutic molecules. This review highlights and critically evaluates the most promising, state-of-the-art nasal delivery platform using microparticles and nanoparticles as drug carriers. The article briefs about benefits, limitations, hurdles, mechanism of action, physicochemical factors, different methods to improve nasal ab-sorption, and formulation aspects of microparticle and nanoparticlebased nasal drug delivery with its applica-tions. Finally, this review summarizes the challenges for such formulation as far as regulatory agencies are concerned, along with safety and efficacy parameters.