Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Pharmacy - Department of Pharmaceutics

The concept of drug targeting or site specific drug delivery was first introduced by Paul Elrich in 1909, when he reported {u2018}magic bullet{u2019} to deliver a drug to the desired site of action without affecting the non target organs or tissues by associating the drug with a pharmacologically 2inactive carrier3 capable of conveying the drug selectively towards its target cells.The concept of targeted drug delivery is designed to help concentrate the drug in the desired tissues while reducing its relative concentration in the remaining tissues which results into the drug being localized on the targeted site without affecting the surrounding tissues. Besides, drug loss is reduced as a result of its localization which helps get maximum efficacy of the drug. Various carriers have been used for drug targeting, such as synthetic polymers, immunoglobulin, liposomes, serum proteins, microspheres, niosomes and erythrocytes. Niosomes represent an emerging class of novel vesicular systems in which the medication is encapsulated in vesicles prepared with hydrated mixture of various non-ionic surfactants and cholesterol. A wide-ranging research carried over niosomes as drug carriers proved them to be a promising one and has potential to decrease the drugs' side effects and increase the therapeutic effectiveness in different diseases

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