Polymers in Drug Delivery: Concepts, Developments and Potential
Targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, including small-molecule drugs and biopharmaceuticals, to the specific site of action can improve their safety and pharmaceutical efficacy. Controlled-release polymer technologies have played an important role in t
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Abstract Targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, including small-molecule drugs and biopharmaceuticals, to the specific site of action can improve their safety and pharmaceutical efficacy. Controlled-release polymer technologies have played an important role in the advancement of targeted drug delivery research. Modern advances in polymeric drug delivery will depend on rational design of polymers tailored for carrying specific payload and exerting desirable biological functions as a result of a detailed and thorough understanding of biological processes. This chapter provides a unique coverage of the field of polymers in drug delivery. It addresses the foundations of drug delivery in a conceptual context, highlights the extracellular and intracellular barriers to effective polymeric drug delivery, critically reviews the recent developments in different classes of polymeric delivery agents (including polymer-drug conjugates, polymeric micelles, multi-component polyplexes, polymer-modified liposomes, polymersomes, and membrane-disruptive polymers), and discusses their applications for the treatment of various diseases including cancer. Keywords Polymer therapeutics • Drug delivery • Intracellular delivery • Controlled release • Stimuli-responsive • Responsive polymers • Predictive, preventive and personalised medicine
1 Introduction The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have increasing financial and regulatory pressures caused by continuing patent expirations of a number of blockbuster drugs, dwindling product pipelines and increasingly cautious government R. Chen () Department of Chemical Engineering, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom e-mail: [email protected] J. Coelho (ed.), Drug Delivery Systems: Advanced Technologies Potentially Applicable in Personalised Treatment, Advances in Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine 4, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6010-3__1, © Springer ScienceCBusiness Media Dordrecht 2013
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regulators [1]. Drug delivery technologies are widely expected to change the landscape of those industries in the foreseeable future [2, 3]. Targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to the specific site of action can improve their safety and pharmaceutical efficacy. The development of drug-delivery products may therefore create a new armamentarium of therapeutics.
1.1 Challenges and Opportunities of Polymers in Drug Development Low water solubility, unfavourable stability, short circulation time in plasma, poor bioavailability, non-specific toxicity against normal tissue and cells, and multidrug resistance of a large number of small-molecule drugs can seriously hinder their therapeutic efficacy. This prevents the approval of promising new agents for clinical use. Water-soluble, targeted drug delivery systems are therefore intrinsically attractive for conventional chemotherapy [4]. The advances in genomics and proteomics research and the improved understanding of genetic bases of diseases have enabled the devel
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