Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective membranes called meninges and fluid adjacent the brain and spinal cord. The inflammatory progression expands all through subarachnoid space of the brain and spinal cord and occupies the ventricles. The pathogens like bacteria, fungi, viruses, or parasites are main sources of infection causing meningitis. Bacterial meningitis is a life-threatening health problem that which needs instantaneous apprehension and treatment. Nesseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus flu are major widespread factors causing bacterial meningitis. The conventional drug delivery approaches encounter difficulty in crossing this blood-brain barrier (BBB) and therefore are insufficient to elicit the desired pharmacological effect as required for treatment of meningitis. Therefore, application of nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems has become imperative for successful dealing with this deadly disease. The nanoparticles have ability to across BBB via four important transport mechanisms, i.e., paracellular transport, transcellular (transcytosis), endocytosis (adsorptive transcytosis), and receptor-mediated transcytosis. In this review, we reminisce distinctive symptoms of meningitis, and provide an overview of various types of bacterial meningitis, with a focus on its epidemiology, pathogenesis, and pathophysiology. This review describes conventional therapeutic approaches for treatment of meningitis and the problems encountered by them while transmitting across tight junctions of BBB. The nanotechnology approaches like functionalized polymeric nanoparticles, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carrier, nanoemulsion, liposomes, transferosomes, and carbon nanotubes which have been recently evaluated for treatment or detection of bacterial meningitis have been focused. This review has also briefly summarized the recent patents and clinical status of therapeutic modalities for meningitis.
Diabetes mellitus is a severe condition in which the pancreas produces inadequate insulin or the insulin generated is ineffective for utilisation by the body; as a result, insulin therapy is required for control blood sugar levels in patients having type 1 diabetes and is widely recommended in advanced type 2 diabetes patients with uncontrolled diabetes despite dual oral therapy, while subcutaneous insulin administration using hypodermic injection or pump-mediated infusion is the traditional route of insulin delivery and causes discomfort, needle phobia, reduced adherence, and risk of infection. Therefore, transdermal insulin delivery has been extensively explored as an appealing alternative to subcutaneous approaches for diabetes management which not only is non-invasive and easy, but also avoids first-pass metabolism and prevents gastrointestinal degradation. Microneedles have been commonly investigated in human subjects for transdermal insulin administration because they are minimally invasive and painless. The different types of microneedles developed for the transdermal delivery of anti-diabetic drugs are discussed in this review, including solid, dissolving, hydrogel, coated, and hollow microneedles. Numerous microneedle products have entered the market in recent years. But, before the microneedles can be effectively launched into the market, a significant amount of investigation is required to address the numerous challenges. In conclusion, the use of microneedles in the transdermal system is an area worth investigating because of its significant benefits over the oral route in the delivery of anti-diabetic medications and biosensing of blood sugar levels to assure improved clinical outcomes in diabetes management.
Neurodegeneration is the loss of neuronal capacity and structure over time which causes neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson, and Huntington's disease (HD). This review is primarily concerned with HD, which was fully described by George Huntington in 1872. In developed countries, HD has become another common single-gene neurological disorder. Because of its autosomal dominant inheritance, the sickness affects both individuals and their families. Huntington disease has been recognized as a disorder that affects the complete body and brain in which the mutant huntingtin polyglutamine (polyQ) sequence is extensively increased and gets correlated to CAG trinucleotide which codes for glutamine (Q). These proteins have characteristics that produce apoptosis and dysfunction. HD is a lethal condition which needs an immediate diagnosis and treatment, and therefore, nanoparticle has come into sight out as opportunistic strategies for treatment of HD. Nanostructures have great potential to cross the blood brain barrier and also prevent breakdown of active molecule and reduces the drug toxicity. This review explains the distinguishing symptoms, genetics, and stages during the development of Huntington's disease, and also provides an overview of HD with an emphasis on its epidemiology, pathogenesis, and management. This review focuses on the latest studies on nanotechnology-related technologies, i.e., magnetic nanoparticle, solid lipid nanoparticle, and polymeric nanoparticle for Huntington's disease treatment. The pioneering patents and in-progress clinical trials related to Huntington's disease has also been summarized in this review.