Bioinspired smart nanohybrids for stimuli responsive drug delivery

To date, multifunctional nanohybrids have been proposed for catalysis, sensing, energy storage, imaging, and stimuli active therapies. Further, nanosized smart materials exhibit significant impact in targeted drug delivery applications. So far, various nanohybrids like porous silica, porous carbon, polymeric nanohybrids, liposomal particles, carbon nanotubes, iron nanoparticles, gold nanostructures have been considered as bioinspired smart nanohybrids for drug delivery applications due to high surface area, good biocompatibility, high cargo-loading capacity, long circulation time, specific biodistribution, easy surface modifications, etc. However, complicated synthesis process, poor control on premature cargo release, low product yield, poor stability, uncontrolled growth, and particle size are remaining challenges so far. Here in this chapter, a detailed review on the evolution of bioinspired nanohybrids for drug delivery applications has been discussed. Particularly, basic requirements of bioinspired nanohybrids for stimuli responsive drug delivery are highlighted here. In addition, various types of functional nanomaterials and their synthesis routes with their limitations have been discussed in detail. Overall, this chapter explains the current scenario of engineering stimuli responsive drug delivery system and application of bioinspired systems with their significant impact in nanomedicine.