Giving pills directly to the cell: nanocapsules and nanoencasulaption

As a future pharmacist, one topic that I always wondered was how can be the pharmacological activity more efficient. A typical drug would be first ingested by the patient and then it would be absorbed by the body; the drug then would travel across the entire system until arriving to where is needed. Because of this, a lot of the drug is lost in the trip, which will require a higher concentration that can lead to adverse effects.

One thing I learned in first year (in Introduction to Chemistry and Pharmacy) was about nanocapsules, which are literally a small pill, so small (down to 10^-9 meters) they are invisible to the eye. Those capsules, formed by the active principle surrounded by encapsulating agents (proteins, polymers, lipids or inorganic materials), can be designed to work with specific tissues, which implies a lot of improvements over traditional drug delivery: it needs lower concentration (as it not lost over the rest of the system), better stabilization, longer release times and even making possible cell membrane penetration, a critical step in the development of genetic medicine.

The technique to produce these capsules is known as nanoencapsulation, and it can also be useful for drugs that are effective but taste and smells awfully. I choose this topic because I think this would be the next big step in pharmacy, as the possibilities are limitless: they can be used against cancer (delivering powerful drugs without the side effects of chemotherapy), but they need more research and development to be more used in the real world.