ADVANTAGEOUS NASAL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: A REVIEW

The convenience of administration and improved patient compliance are important in the design of nasal drug delivery system which remains the preferred route of drug delivery in spite of various disadvantages. Therapy through intranasal administration has been an accepted form of treatment in the Ayurvedic system of Indian Medicine. Advances in biotechnology have made available a large number of protein and peptide drug for the treatment of a variety of diseases. These drugs are unsuitable for oral administration because they are significantly degraded in the gastrointestinal tract or considerably metabolized by first pass effect in the liver. Even the parenteral route is inconvenient for long term therapy. Of many alternate routes tried, intranasal drug delivery is found much promising for administration of these drugs. In this article, an overview on the design and development of intranasal drug delivery system is presented. Advantages of NDDS are Drug degradation that is observed in the gastrointestinal tract is absent, hepatic first pass metabolism is absent, Rapid drug absorption and quick onset of action can be achieved, bioavailability of larger drug molecules can be improved by means of absorption enhancer or other approach, the nasal bioavailability for smaller drug molecules is good, Drugs that are orally not absorbed can be delivered to the systemic circulation by nasal drug delivery, Studies so far carried out indicate that the nasal route is an alternate to parenteral route, especially, for protein and peptide drugs, convenient for the patients, especially for those on long term therapy, when compared with parenteral medication, Large nasal mucosal surface area for dose absorption, rapid drug absorption via highly-vascularized mucosa, ease of administration, non-invasive, lower dose/reduced side effects.