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Review
. 2019 Jul 31;10(3):34.
doi: 10.3390/jfb10030034.

Stimuli-Responsive Drug Release from Smart Polymers

Carlos M Wells  1 , Michael Harris  2 , Landon Choi  2 , Vishnu Priya Murali  2 , Fernanda Delbuque Guerra  2 , J Amber Jennings  2
Affiliations
Review

Stimuli-Responsive Drug Release from Smart Polymers

Carlos M Wells et al. J Funct Biomater. .

Abstract

Over the past 10 years, stimuli-responsive polymeric biomaterials have emerged as effective systems for the delivery of therapeutics. Persistent with ongoing efforts to minimize adverse effects, stimuli-responsive biomaterials are designed to release in response to either chemical, physical, or biological triggers. The stimuli-responsiveness of smart biomaterials may improve spatiotemporal specificity of release. The material design may be used to tailor smart polymers to release a drug when particular stimuli are present. Smart biomaterials may use internal or external stimuli as triggering mechanisms. Internal stimuli-responsive smart biomaterials include those that respond to specific enzymes or changes in microenvironment pH; external stimuli can consist of electromagnetic, light, or acoustic energy; with some smart biomaterials responding to multiple stimuli. This review looks at current and evolving stimuli-responsive polymeric biomaterials in their proposed applications.

Keywords: drug delivery; drug release; enzyme-responsive materials; pH-responsive materials; shape-memory materials; stimuli-responsiveness; thermo-responsive materials.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
pH-responsive polymers of different architectures: (a) unimer–micelle, (b) micelle–reverse micelle, (c) nanogels or microgels, (d) hollow–reverse hollow, (e) dendrimer, (f) hyper-branched, (g) micelle morphology changes (from worm-like to hollow), and (h) polymer brushes. Reprinted with permission from Polymer Chemistry, 2017, 8, 144–176. Copyright (2017) The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Schematic representation of the preparation of doxorubicin loaded poly(methacylate acid)-perfluorohexane (PMAA-PFH) nanocapsules. (B) Schematic procedure for imaging-guided ultrasound triggered drug delivery to tumors using biodegradable PMAA-PFH nanocapsules. Reprinted with permission from Biomaterials, 2014, 35(6), 2079–2088. Copyright (2014) Elsevier Ltd.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Illustration of model drug (green spheres) release upon 254 nm UV irradiation and re-encapsulation upon 620 nm visible irradiation of spiropyrans-hyperbranched polyglycerol micelles. Reprinted with permission from Biomacromolecules 2014, 15, 628–634. Copyright (2014) American Chemical Society.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic illustration showing the application of alternating-current magnetic field to induce a phase transition in poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles and increase the release of a chemotherapeutic. Reprinted with permission from Biomaterials 2018, 180, 240–252. Copyright (2018) Elsevier Ltd.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The scheme of preparing of lysine peptide dendrimer-glycly phenylalanyl leucyl glycine tetra-peptide-gemcitabine conjugate (Dendrimer-gemcitabine). The conjugate-based nanoparticles accumulate into the tumor via the EPR effect and enzyme-responsively release drugs. Reprinted with permission from Acta Biomaterialia, 2017, 55, 153–162. Copyright (2017) Elsevier Ltd.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Illustration of layer-by-layer assembled casein coated iron oxide nanoparticles loaded with drug (DOX/Indocyanine green). Reprinted with permission from Biomaterials, 2015, 39, 105–113. Copyright (2015) Elsevier Ltd.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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