7 - Responsive block copolymers for drug delivery applications. Part 1: Endogenous stimuli-responsive drug-release systems

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed great advancement in the design and synthesis of endogenous stimuli-responsive (ESR) block copolymers in biomedical applications, especially for the intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents. The recent research focus has been on the improvement of targetability and site-specific triggered release capability of drugs from ESR block copolymer nanocarriers. The advent of modern macromolecular synthesis tools such as living radical polymerizations and various “click” chemistry strategies was simultaneously employed for the synthesis of various ESR block copolymers. Recently, plenty of nanosized drug delivery vehicles were engineered from ESR block copolymers to release their therapeutic cargo into pathological sites according to specific intracellular stimuli triggers. This chapter summarizes the recent research toward the design of ESR block copolymer-based drug delivery systems that are able to control drug release in response to different internal stimuli such as pH gradient, enzyme concentration, and redox gradients.