Nano‐Star‐Shaped Polymers for Drug Delivery Applications

Abstract

With the advancement of polymer engineering, complex star-shaped polymer architectures can be synthesized with ease, bringing about a host of unique properties and applications. The polymer arms can be functionalized with different chemical groups to fine-tune the response behavior or be endowed with targeting ligands or stimuli responsive moieties to control its physicochemical behavior and self-organization in solution. Rheological properties of these solutions can be modulated, which also facilitates the control of the diffusion of the drug from these star-based nanocarriers. However, these star-shaped polymers designed for drug delivery are still in a very early stage of development. Due to the sheer diversity of macromolecules that can take on the star architectures and the various combinations of functional groups that can be cross-linked together, there remain many structure-property relationships which have yet to be fully established. This review aims to provide an introductory perspective on the basic synthetic methods of star-shaped polymers, the properties which can be controlled by the unique architecture, and also recent advances in drug delivery applications related to these star candidates.

Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane Hybrid Polymers: Well‐Defined Architectural Design and Potential Functional Applications

“…Compared with other inorganic nanobuilding blocks, POSS compounds for biomaterial applications present distinctive advantages, including low toxicity, potential biodegradability, easy functionalization, and excellent mechanical and thermal properties . In the past 6 years, with the rapid development of synthetic strategies for producing POSS‐hybrid polymers, there has been significant advancements in the understanding of the structure‐property relationships of POSS‐hybrid polymers.…”

Incorporation of Polycaprolactone to Cyclodextrin‐Based Nanocarrier for Potent Gene Delivery

“…For instance, macrophage cells are resistant to the viral‐mediated gene transfection, and the administration of viral vectors easily induced immune response to produce proinflammatory cytokines and extensive toxicity in vivo . Besides, the reason for these is complicated, which severely restricted the effects in the gene delivery therapy and required concerted efforts to fully understand the issue …”

“…Similar to polylactic acid (PLA), poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL), one nonhazardous polyester, could be enzymatic hydrolyzed for degradation in body . At body temperature, PCL is in semicrystalline state, which is in a rubbery state to increase permeability for body metabolic system . Besides, due to less ester bonds, PCL is not only biodegradable, but more stable than other types of polyesters .…”

“…[6,14,15] Besides, the reason for these is complicated, which severely restricted the effects in the gene delivery therapy and required concerted efforts to fully understand the issue. [16][17][18] In comparison with viral vector systems and cationic liposome, the cationic polymer system is a major kind of nonviral vector, which has a large range of transformation to optimize and possess low innate immune response character. [19][20][21][22][23] In recent studies, cyclodextrin (CD)-based polycation gene delivery carriers, with the effective ability to deliver some kinds of nucleic acids including plasmid DNA (pDNA), small interfering RNA (siRNA), and microRNA (miRNA) have attracted many interests.…”

“…[38][39][40] At body temperature, PCL is in semicrystalline state, which is in a rubbery state to increase permeability for body metabolic system. [17,41] Besides, due to less ester bonds, PCL is not only biodegradable, but more stable than other types of polyesters. [42,43] In clinical practice, efficiency and safety remain to be the two most important factors.…”