Current challenges in clay minerals for drug delivery

This study reviews current challenges of clay minerals for drug delivery. Clay minerals are widely used in conventional pharmaceutical dosage forms both as excipients and active agents. Clay minerals may interact with drug molecules, but also with inactive components of medicinal products such as polymers. On the basis of these interactions, clay minerals and their modified forms can be effectively used to modify drug delivery systems. In this research area, recent advances include the use of montmorillonite and saponite to retain drug molecules and control their release. Synthetic analogues such as Laponite and layered double hydroxides are also being used for biopharmaceutical and technological purposes. Another interesting strategy is the preparation of composites with clay mineral particles in polymeric matrices to obtain different systems (films, nanoparticles, hydrogels, matrices...) with improved pharmaceutical properties compared to the single components. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.