Abstract The conventional drug delivery systems including oral and transdermal delivery have limitations. Oral route of drug delivery shows poor drug stability, solubility in physiological barrier of digestive tract. Also it is caused tissue damage and pain for ingesting of various dosage forms. Also, transdermal drug delivery is limited permeability of therapeutic agents by skin barrier. To overcome revealed limitations in conventional drug delivery systems, many researches have been investigated to design drug delivery methods with topographical features of micro- and nanoscale which lead to enhance cellular adhesion, drug permeation, regulate releasement of therapeutic agents and incorporate functionalization of smart polymers as delivery platforms for target tissues. Recently, advances in micro- and nanotechnology have been progressed in drug delivery systems that facilitate etching highly ordered structures with biodegradable and biocompatible polymers and combining topographical features with proper strategies which are applied according to the characteristics of target tissues. In this review article, we introduce highlights of conventional and recent fabrication techniques about topographical features for drug delivery and outline recent therapeutic applications with topographically defined devices.
Keywords
Drug delivery system, Lithography, Nanofabrication, Topographical cue