Biologics and Vaccines for Nasal and Pulmonary Drug Delivery

Biologics are a rapidly emerging class of therapeutics that have succeeded clinically and commercially due to their specificity and efficacy against various diseases including cancer, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. Even though most biologics are administered parenterally, nasal and pulmonary delivery would be beneficial due to numerous advantages such as being patient-friendly, noninvasive, cost-effective, and less toxic. While there are currently a few nasal and inhaled biologics on the market, for example, Suprefact®, Minirin®, Miacalcin®, most of them are designed to treat ailments related to prostate carcinoma, diabetes, osteoporosis but not for respiratory diseases. Moreover, there are some marketed nasally delivered vaccines such as Flumist® and Nasovac-S® against influenza virus, inhaled vaccines that did not make it to market. Given the rise of respiratory infections such as MERS, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2, a great deal of interest exists in developing nasal and pulmonary-delivered biologics and vaccines for respiratory diseases. The objective of this chapter is to describe the potential for pulmonary and nasal delivery of biologics. Each section delves into introducing biologics and vaccines, followed by a portrayal of recent updates on nasal and pulmonary delivery of biologics and vaccines. The most promising formulation strategies for enhancing the stability and therapeutic efficacy of biologics as a part of research and development will be discussed

Recent Advances in the Use of Iron–Gold Hybrid Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Recently, there has been an increased interest in iron–gold-based hybrid nanostructures, due to their combined outstanding optical and magnetic properties resulting from the usage of two separate metals. The synthesis of these nanoparticles involves thermal decomposition and modification of their surfaces using a variety of different methods, which are discussed in this review. In addition, different forms such as core–shell, dumbbell, flower, octahedral, star, rod, and Janus-shaped hybrids are discussed, and their unique properties are highlighted. Studies on combining optical response in the near-infrared window and magnetic properties of iron–gold-based hybrid nanoparticles as multifunctional nanoprobes for drug delivery, magnetic–photothermal heating as well as contrast agents during magnetic and optical imaging and magnetically-assisted optical biosensing to detect traces of targeted analytes inside the body has been reviewed