Nanostructured Lipid Carriers and their application in drug delivery

Since a decade, trials are being made to utilise Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLN) as a drug delivery system. However, the major limitation of SLN is limited drug payload and drug expulsion during storage. Recently, areas of research have focused on the carrier system based on mixtures of solid and liquid lipids known as Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (NLC). The aim of developing NLC is to overcome the limitation of SLN. This paper provides an overview of NLC technology and describes the different types of NLC, its production, characterisation and potential applications for the administration of drug molecules.