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Review
. 2022 Mar 23;14(7):1286.
doi: 10.3390/polym14071286.

Photo-Induced Drug Release from Polymeric Micelles and Liposomes: Phototriggering Mechanisms in Drug Delivery Systems

Najla M Salkho  1   2 , Nahid S Awad  1 , William G Pitt  3 , Ghaleb A Husseini  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Photo-Induced Drug Release from Polymeric Micelles and Liposomes: Phototriggering Mechanisms in Drug Delivery Systems

Najla M Salkho et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Chemotherapeutic drugs are highly effective in treating cancer. However, the side effects associated with this treatment lower the quality of life of cancer patients. Smart nanocarriers are able to encapsulate these drugs to deliver them to tumors while reducing their contact with the healthy cells and the subsequent side effects. Upon reaching their target, the release of the encapsulated drugs should be carefully controlled to achieve therapeutic levels at the required time. Light is one of the promising triggering mechanisms used as external stimuli to trigger drug release from the light-responsive nanocarriers. Photo-induced drug release can be achieved at a wide range of wavelengths: UV, visible, and NIR depending on many factors. In this review, photo-induced release mechanisms were summarized, focusing on liposomes and micelles. In general, light-triggering mechanisms are based on one of the following: changing the hydrophobicity of a nanocarrier constituent(s) to make it more soluble, introducing local defects within a nanocarrier (by conformational transformation or photo-cleavage of its lipids/polymers chains) to make it more porous or concentrating heat for thermo-sensitive nanocarriers to release their payload. Several research studies were also presented to explore the potentials and limitations of this promising drug release triggering mechanism.

Keywords: chemotherapy; light; nanocarriers; photoresponsive; triggering release.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Photo-induced mechanisms used in triggering drug release from nanocarriers. (a) Photo-isomerization; (b) Photo-cleavage; (c) SPR of Gold NPs for thermo-sensitive nanocarriers, gold NPs can be on the surface or inside.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Azobenzene photo-isomerization.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Photo-isomerization of Spiropyran and Merocyanine.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Photo-oxidation of plasmalogen at the vinyl ether linkage mediated by singlet oxygen.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Photo-cleavable o-nitrobenzyl ester irradiated with UV light.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Surface plasmon resonance.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Surface plasmon resonance for different sizes of gold nanoparticles. Reprinted with permission from [38]. Copyright 1999 American Chemical Society.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Hydrophobic to hydrophilic change of DNQ after Wolff rearrangement induced by UV/NIR light in buffered water.
Figure 9
Figure 9
(a) Preparation of nanogel particles through micelle formation at T > LCST, followed by crosslinking of coumarin by UV irradiation at λ1 > 310 nm. De-crosslinking was achieved by irradiation at λ2 < 260 nm; (b) Reversible photo-crosslinking of di-block copolymer PEO-b-P(MEOMA-co-CMA). Reprinted with permission from [43]. Copyright 2009 American Chemical Society.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Self-illuminating quantum dots (QDs) interacting with photosensitizer-loaded micelle through BRET. Adapted from [66].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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