Providing a significant cross-fertilization of ideas across several disciplines, Enhancement in Drug Delivery offers a unique comprehensive review of both theoretical and practical aspects of enhancement agents and techniques used for problematic administration routes. It presents an integrated evaluation of absorption enhancers and modes for promoting absorption that is especially valuable to those involved with the development of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, bioengineered, and medical products, as well as graduate students looking to study this intriguing field and those professionals involved with patents and regulatory issues.

Organized by routes of administration, the book is divided into eight major sections: oral, rectal, buccal/sublingual, dermal/transdermal, nasal, vaginal/uterine, ocular, and brain. It offers fundamental as well specialized information including current findings on-

- Surfactant use to accelerate macromolecule input

- Targeted gastrointestinal delivery and enhanced absorption of lipophilic drugs

- Permeation issues in rectal absorption

- Chemical means of enhancement

- Carriers for enhanced delivery to and across the skin

- Methods associated with breaching the skin

- Promoted buccal and sublingual absorption

- Emerging ocular, nasal, vaginal, and uterine delivery systems

- Carriers for overcoming the blood brain barrier

Those investigators primarily involved with one specific route of delivery will be able to learn of helpful concepts and find additional stimulation from reading the approaches others have used within and outside their own spheres of activity. Readers are likely to find the same enhancer tested for various administration routes and in diverse experimental models. By understanding the properties and behavior of the enhancers operating within such systems, they may well find the inspiration needed to develop appropriate enhancing delivery methods for new applications.

While novel biotechnology-based pharmaceutical products and therapies often require enhancement to facilitate bioavailability, more efficient administration of conventional drugs may also necessitate enhancement. Touitou (pharmaceutical sciences, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem) and Barry (pharmaceutical technology, U. of Bradford, UK) integrate widely-scattered sources on the latest trends in drug design, development, and testing. After an overview of the major routes of drug delivery and the barriers encountered, they treat the biopharmaceutics of alternative absorption pathways. International contributors to 28 chapters consider the most widely investigated promising enhancement approaches including chemical enhancers for nasal, corneal, and vaginal delivery; electrically-assisted methods; liposmes combined with electrical potentiation; vesicular carriers; and strategies for by-passing the skin and the blood-brain barrier.
Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

While novel biotechnology-based pharmaceutical products and therapies often require enhancement to facilitate bioavailability, more efficient administration of conventional drugs may also necessitate enhancement. Touitou (pharmaceutical sciences, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem) and Barry (pharmaceutical technology, U. of Bradford, UK) integrate widely-scattered sources on the latest trends in drug design, development, and testing. After an overview of the major routes of drug delivery and the barriers encountered, they treat the biopharmaceutics of alternative absorption pathways. International contributors to 28 chapters consider the most widely investigated promising enhancement approaches including chemical enhancers for nasal, corneal, and vaginal delivery; electrically-assisted methods; liposmes combined with electrical potentiation; vesicular carriers; and strategies for by-passing the skin and the blood-brain barrier. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Focusing on research, Enhancement in Drug Delivery provides a comprehensive review and detailed coverage of all routes of drug administration. This book presents both the basics of the route of administration and the methods for enhancing it. It includes a chapter devoted to chemical enhancers that apply to more than one route of administration. It also contains a chapter on future directions that offers a perspective on novel enhancers. Featuring contributions from worldwide experts in each route of administration, this text makes an excellent resource for pharmaceutical scientists working in dosage forms, academic researchers conducting clinical trials, as well as FDA regulatory personnel.

Enhancement in Drug Delivery offers an accessible compendium covering a wide spectrum of methods to enhance drug delivery and absorption by various routes of administration. Drawing from a number of disciplines, it gives students and practitioners in pharmaceutics, medicine, and health-related disciplines a much-needed guide to current practices. It also provides a starting place for those working on delivery systems for new drugs or seeking to improve current systems by drawing on means applied in other routes. Organized by routes of delivery, the book covers oral, rectal, buccal and sublingual, dermal and transdermal, ocular, vaginal and uterine, nasal and brain administrations.