One of the most promising and rapidly developing areas of modern pharmacology is smart drug delivery or target drug delivery. Despite all medical advances in modern treatment, many drugs have severe side effects associated with their negative impact on the intact tissue. Drug joining to the carriers and, in fact, to the nanoparticles of different nature, allows the delivery to the target organ. Such mechanism enhances the bioavailability of pharmaceutical form, improving solubility and providing various overcoming barriers to reduce the influence on patient’s organism by acting specifically on the damaged area. An important additional advantage is the ability to create long-acting preparations.
Both inorganic and organic nanoparticles can be used as drug carriers. The inorganic particles can be gold, silver, iron oxides, silicon, fullerenes, nanotubes, and others. The organic carriers are more diverse and include whole classes of organic polymers, proteins, liposomes, dendrimers, and even viruses.
Thus, nanodrugs offer new prospects for effective treatment of various pathological processes, for example: cancers, heart disease, including coronary heart disease, inflammation, etc.
Currently, the Research Laboratory of Nanotechnology is actively functioning at the Institute of Experimental Medicine of Almazov Centre. The Laboratory works on the targeted drug delivery into the damaged tissue, mostly in myocardium and skeletal muscle.
A large number of organic and inorganic nanoparticles are investigated as drug carriers; we tested their important properties and features such as toxicity, ability to eliminate from the body, and also the delivery effect. The results of these studies were published in Russian scientific journals: “Russian Nanotechnology”, “Nanotechnics”, “Biotechnosphere” and the leading international journals such as International Journal of Nanomedicine, Materials. In 2012, we received a patent for the invention named “Cardioprotection method”. The invention is included in the list of 100 best inventions of Russia.