Ligands for Targeted Drug Delivery: Basic Fundamentals and Applications is a comprehensive reference focused on the many ways drug carriers can be functionalized to target specific organs, tissues, cells, and sub-cellular compartments. Chapters cover the basic concepts of targeted drug delivery, describing multiple levels of targets and challenges, along with approaches for target-specific drug delivery and a thorough overview of the challenges in design and application of ligands. Following sections discuss nanoparticles and the main ligand classes with their respective applications. The final chapters discuss future prospects of the technology and clinical aspects of ligand modified drug delivery systems.This is a key reference to drug delivery researchers dealing with the application of ligands to overcome challenges in delivering their active principles to the target structure. Biomedical engineers, materials scientists, and chemists can also benefit from the through description of ligand classes and their potential to improve drug delivery efficiency.- Provides foundational information on targeted drug delivery at organ, tissue, cellular, and sub-cellular levels- Compares active and passive targeting and their applications- Summarizes the wider classes of ligands used for drug delivery- Presents a strategic thinking framework for pairing nanocarriers with appropriate ligands for enhanced therapeutic efficacy
