Abstract: 
The present review is designed to provide an insight on how nanoparticulate carriers are finding niche as promising drug vectors. In the era of controlled and site specific drug delivery systems, use of nanocarriers has became a revolutionary approach. Nanocarriers are at forefront of the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology with several potential applications in drug delivery, clinical medicines and research. The success of nanocarriers as targeted drug delivery platforms depends on their ability to incorporate drugs of different kinds, penetrate through several anatomical barriers, sustained release of incorporated drugs, and stability in nanoscale size. Such prototypic traits of nanocarriers offer a new breakthrough in drug delivery and therapeutics that holds great promise for achieving the goal of controlled and site-specific drug delivery. Delivery of drugs to the brain is a major challenge due to presence of physiological barriers that restricts the delivery of drugs to CNS. Thus, since last few decades, nasal route has been attracted a wide attention of researchers as a convenient, reliable, and safe, being non-invasive, route to achieve faster and higher levels of drug absorption in the brain. It is thought to do so through olfactory route of drug transport which bypass the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and allow the direct transport of drug from nose to brain. Herein, authors has tried to highlight over the frontline aspects relevant to nanoparticulate carriers and their potential as drug delivery systems for targeting the brain via nasal route of drug administration. The present discussion embodies the various nanocarriers and their utility as nose to brain targeted drug delivery vehicles, in the core areas of pharmaceutical sciences, thereby alarming the pharmaceutical industries to enhance their scale up.

Keywords: Nanoparticulate Drug Carriers, Polymeric Micelle, Nanoemulsion, Macroemulsion, Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs), Dendrimer, Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs), Polymer-Lipid Hybrid Nanoparticles (PLN), Liposome.