Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of nanopharmaceuticals

Nanopharmaceuticals is an umbrella term which encompasses nanobased technologies dependent drug-delivery systems to deliver pharmaceuticals in human body as particles ranging in nanometers range. By virtue of its size and technologies, nanopharmaceuticals may impart unique pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) properties than the traditional drug-delivery systems. This chapter discusses the PK, factors affecting pharmacokinetics and PK/PD modeling in the development of nanopharmaceuticals. In general, the biodistribution and elimination of nanopharmaceuticals are more complex and depends on the type, size, composition, charge, and surface chemistry of nanopharmaceuticals. Systemically available nanopharmaceuticals undergo opsonization followed by phagocytosis by reticuloendothelial system. Due to the complexity in modeling of nanopharmaceuticals, lack of appropriate data, limited examples of PK/PD modeling work have been reported. However, recently a greater number of PK/PD modeling have been reported yet there is an immense untapped potential of PK/PD modeling in the development of nanopharmaceuticals which can be utilized with concerted and collaborative efforts.