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Review
. 2024 Feb 15;6(5):1361-1373.
doi: 10.1039/d3na01012k. eCollection 2024 Feb 27.

Nanoencapsulation of general anaesthetics

Basma M T Abdoullateef  1 , Saif El-Din Al-Mofty  1 , Hassan M E Azzazy  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Nanoencapsulation of general anaesthetics

Basma M T Abdoullateef et al. Nanoscale Adv. .

Abstract

General anaesthetics are routinely used to sedate patients during prolonged surgeries and administered via intravenous injection and/or inhalation. All anaesthetics have short half-lives, hence the need for their continuous administration. This causes several side effects such as pain, vomiting, nausea, bradycardia, and on rare occasions death post-administration. Several clinical trials studied the synergetic effect of a combination of anaesthetic drugs to reduce the drug load. Another solution is to encapsulate anaesthetics in nanoparticles to reduce their dose and side effects as well as achieve their sustained release manner. Different types of nanoparticles were developed as carriers of intravenous and intrathecal anaesthetics generating platforms which facilitate drug transport across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Nanocarriers encapsulating common anaesthetic drugs such as propofol, etomidate, and ketamine were developed and characterized in terms of size, stability, onset and duration of loss of right reflex, and tolerance to pain in small animal models. The review discusses the types of nanocarriers used to reduce the side effects of the anaesthetic drugs while prolonging the sedation time. More rigorous studies are still required to evaluate the nanocarrier formulations regarding their ability to deliver anaesthetic drugs across the BBB, safety, and finally applicability in clinical settings.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. (a) Proposed mechanisms for crossing the blood–brain barrier (BBB). (b) Cellular composition of the BBB. (c) Methods utilized to enable materials to pass the BBB. (d) Different nanoparticles reported to have the ability to pass the BBB. Reproduced from Wu et al. with permission from [Springer-Nature], Copyright [2023].
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Encapsulation of propofol, ketamine, and etomidate in different nanocarriers. PLGA: Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), PEG: poly(ethylene glycol), PCL: poly(ε-caprolactone) copolymers, TPGS: d-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate, CPP: cell penetrating peptides.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Targeting propofol to the blood–brain barrier using propionylated amylose. Reproduced from Gao et al. with permission from [Elsevier], Copyright [2017].
None
Basma M. T. Abdoullateef
None
Saif El-Din Al-Mofty
None
Hassan M. E. Azzazy
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