Solid Lipid Nanoparticles: an Effective and Promising Drug Delivery System- a Review

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) have been reported to be an alternative system to emulsions, liposomes, microparticles and their polymeric counterparts for various application routes since the early 1990s due to their advantages. Solid lipid nanoparticles colloidal drug carrier system gained a lot of popularity among researcher as colloidal drug carriers for incorporating hydrophilic or lipophilic drugs. Solid lipid nanoparticles are the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology with several potential applications in drug delivery, clinical medicine and research, as well as in other varied sciences. Due to their unique size-dependent properties, lipid nanoparticles offer the possibility to develop new therapeutics. The present review focuses on the utility of SLN in terms of their introduction, advantages, disadvantages, general ingredients used, production methodology, characterization and current applications. INTRODUCTION: Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) are colloidal carriers developed at the beginning of the 1990s. Generally, they are made of solid hydrophobic core having a monolayer of phospholipids coating. The solid core contains the drug dissolved or dispersed in the solid high melting fat matrix. The hydrophobic chains of phospholipids are embedded in the fat matrix. They have potential to carry lipophilic or hydrophilic drugs or diagnostics 1 . Nanoparticles are colloidal particles ranging from 10 to 1000 nm, in which the active principles (drug or biologically active material) are dissolved, entrapped, and/or to which the active principle is adsorbed or attached 2 . QUICK RESPONSE CODE DOI: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.5(4).1152-62 Article can be accessed online on: www.ijpsr.com DOI link: http://dx.doi.org/10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.5(4).1152-62 FIG. 1: PROPOSED STRUCTURE OF SLN. The solid lipid nanoparticles are sub-micron colloidal carriers (50-100 nm) which are composed of physiological lipid, dispersed in water or in aqueous surfactant solution. SLNs as colloidal drug carrier combine the advantage of polymeric nanoparticles fat emulsions and liposomes 3 . The development of drug delivery carriers is often very challenging, due to the physico-chemical properties of the drug: poor solubility, low permeability, short