Applications of Polyhydroxyalkanoates Based Nanovehicles as Drug Carriers

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are the biodegradable polyesters synthesized from the bacterial origin with high therapeutic importance due to their major biopolymer properties like biodegradability, biocompatibility, non-toxicity and thermo-plasticity. These hypotheses make the PHAs as one of the drug carrier or nanovehicles for therapeutic drug delivery. Drug delivery is one of the emerging fields in biological science, which gives application of delivering the promising drug molecules in the desired drug target, with increasing dissolution rate and bioavailability. Understanding the drug-polymer interactions and controlled release makes the combo of the perfect drug molecule and the biopolymer, and in this, the PHA is reported to be a better natural origin drug carrier. Several reports suggest that, chemical entities of PHA show enhanced activity and used as one of the promising nanocarrier. Experimental test by several assays shows PHA’s as one of the compatible biopolymers in tissues. This chapter comes up with various applications related to PHAs like medical implants, adhesion barriers, drug carriers, tissue engineering, Nano based targeted delivery. Overall, this chapter will provide a perfect base for studies on PHA related to drug carrier studies.