Micro and nanoencapsulation: a new hope to combat the effects of chronic degenerative diseases

In recent years, scientific evidence has demonstrated that diet and/or its bioactive components play an essential role in human health and wellness, leading to a change in the population consumption habits. The interest of the population for consuming healthier food products has motivated the food and pharmaceutical industries for the development of novel functional food products. The use of bioactive compounds for the formulation of novel functional foods has generated great expectations in the scientific community, as a new hope to improve the life quality and health disease status of the population. In this way, new technologies, which are revolutionizing the control, security and role of consuming products, have been developed as a new way to break into the field of bio-guided medicine, in order to provide to the consumers an option for the prevention and/or treatment of chronic degenerative diseases. In the last years, many studies have showed that different encapsulation systems, such as nanoemulsions, liposomes, micelles, polymeric micro or nanoparticles, have the potential to be used in many different biological and medical applications, mainly as targeted drug delivery systems to minimize and delay the negative effects of different chronic degenerative diseases. This review investigates the potential health benefits of several drug delivery systems to encapsulate bioactive compounds and its impact on the prevention and/or development of chronic degenerative diseases.