Nano- and microparticulate drug carriers for targeting of the inflamed intestinal mucosa

Conventional treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is based on the daily administration of high doses of immune-suppressant or anti-inflammatory drugs, often complicated by serious adverse effects. Thus, a carrier system that delivers the drug specifically to the inflamed intestinal regions and shows prolonged drug release would be desirable. The advent of TNF-α antibodies and other biopharmaceuticals as potent and specific immune modulators in recent years has broadened the treatment options in IBD, but further increases the necessity for adequate drug delivery, as integrity and bioactivity of the biological active have to be ensured. Exploiting the pathophysiological idiosyncrasies of IBD such as increased mucus production, changes in the structure of the intestinal epithelium and invasion of activated macrophages, different colloidal drug carrier systems have been designed to passively or actively target the site of inflammation. This review introduces different micro- or nanoparticulate drug delivery systems for oral application in IBD therapy for the delivery of small molecular compounds and next generation therapeutics from the group of biological (i.e. peptide and nucleotide based) drugs.