Polymer conjugates for focal and targeted delivery of drugs

Abstract

Polymer therapeutics is a very promising and rapidly growing area of nanomedicine, which has significantly improved the therapeutic potential of low-molecular-weight drugs and proteins for cancer treatment. Conjugation of toxic drugs to high-molecular-weight carriers can lead to reduction in systemic toxicity, longer retention time in the body, improved biodistribution and therapeutic efficacy, and site-specific passive accumulation thanks to the leaky tumor vasculature. Furthermore, a targeting moiety can be coupled to the polymer-drug conjugate in order to actively and selectively deliver it to the desired tissue and cellular target. This review presents a summary of currently developed polymer therapeutics with detailed focus on their components and supramolecular structure. The use of polymeric nanocarriers for cancer angiogenesis-targeted delivery is illustrated by specific examples.

Efficiency of newly formulated camptothecin with β-cyclodextrin-EDTA-Fe3O4 nanoparticle-conjugated nanocarriers as an anti-colon cancer (HT29) drug

“…Polymers not only have a considerable potential for drug delivery 5 , but also can be used for medical devices, wound dressing, and fabricating scaffolds in tissue engineering 6 . Cyclodextrins are candidates for such a role, because of their ability to alter the physical, chemical, and biological properties of guest molecules through the formation of inclusion complexes.…”

Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization of Bicyclic α,β‐Unsaturated Anhydrides for Ready‐to‐be‐grafted Polymers Having Tailored pH‐Responsive Degradability

“…[2a,c, 3] However,c argo conjugation to polymers often requires complex reactions,i ncluding protection and deprotection, owing to vulnerability of degradable bonds in the conjugation conditions. [4] Furthermore,i ti sp referable to avoid the conjugation in aqueous conditions for minimizing hydrolysis of the bonds. [5] b-carboxylic acid amide having a cis-a,b-double bond has au nique pH-responsive degradability.U nlike other amide bonds that can only be hydrolyzed at extreme pH conditions, b-carboxylic acid amide having a cis-a,b-double bond, that is, maleic acid amide derivative,can be hydrolyzed at mild acidic conditions around pH 3-7.…”

Miniaturized pre-clinical cancer models as research and diagnostic tools

“…Consequently, cancer drugs coupled to molecules within a certain size range, including macromolecular drugs, liposomes and nanoparticles, are passively targeted to the cancerous tissues [20, 111–113]. Alternatively, markers on the cancerous cells and surrounding vascular tissues are actively targeted through the exploitation of antigen-antibody or ligand-receptor interactions [112–116]. To this end, investigators are actively developing in vitro biomimetic platforms/systems [109, 117, 118].…”

“…Alternatively, the cancer-specific environment (e.g., vascular system) has also been exploited for the targeted delivery of drug carriers [20, 112, 116, 132] (Fig. 2B), enhancing the efficiency and reducing side effects of drugs.…”