Role of polymer-drug conjugates in organ-specific delivery systems

Abstract

Polymers have been utilized to deliver the drug to targeted site in controlled manner, achieving the high-therapeutic efficacy. Polymeric drug conjugates having variable ligands as attachments have been proved to be biodegradable, stimuli sensitive and targeted systems. Numerous polymeric drug conjugates having linkers degraded by acidity or intracellular enzymes or sensitive to over expressed groups of diseased organ/tissue have been synthesized during last decade to develop targeted delivery systems. Most of these organs have number of receptors attached with different cells such as Kupffer cells of liver have mannose-binding receptors while hepatocytes have asialoglycoprotein receptors on their surface which mainly bind with the galactose derivatives. Such ligands can be used for achieving high targeting and intracellular delivery of the drug. This review presents detailed aspects of receptors found in different cells of specific organ and ligands with binding efficiency to these specific receptors. This review highlights the need of further studies on organ-specific polymer-drug conjugates by providing detailed account of polymeric conjugates synthesized till date having organ-specific targeting.

Keywords: Liver targeting; polymer–drug conjugates; smart polymers; targeting ligands; targeting receptors.