US Patent 7534449 - High ligand loading density nanoparticles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7534449.html

Ligands are substances useful to provide binding to particular receptors for drug delivery. This patent from Yale teaches using polymeric nanoparticles to provide a high ligand density for improved drug delivery. Claim 1 reads:

1. Polymeric microparticles or nanoparticles for delivery of a therapeutic, nutritional, diagnostic or prophylactic agent incorporated in a high density on or within the microparticles, the microparticles or nanoparticles comprising targeting ligands present in a density of between about 1,000 to 10,000,000 ligands per square micron of microparticle or nanoparticle surface area, wherein the ligands are inserted into or attached onto the surface of the polymeric microparticles or nanoparticles.