NASAL CAVITY: A PROMISING TRANSMUCOSAL PLATFORM FOR DRUG DELIVERY AND RESEARCH APPROACHES FROM NASAL TO BRAIN TARGETTING

Drug delivery through nasal route has attracted the interest of scientific community as it has been potentially explored as an alternative route for the administration of vaccines and biomolecules such as proteins, peptides and non-peptide drugs that are susceptible to enzymatic or acidic degradation and first-pass hepatic metabolism. The nasal mucosa is one of the most permeable and highly vascularized site for drug administration ensuring rapid absorption and onset of therapeutic action. In addition it minimizes the lag time associated with oral drug delivery and offers noninvasiveness, self medication, patient comfort and patient compliance which are hurdled in intravenous drug therapy. The objective of this review is to provide an anatomical, histological and physiological overview of nose, absorption enhancers, barriers related to nasal drug delivery, physicochemical, biological and formulation related factors affecting nasal drug delivery system and its advantages. It also highlights research approaches on brain targeting through nasal cavity