Abstract
Abstract Drug carriers with intelligent functions are powerful therapeutic and diagnostic platforms in curing various diseases such as malignant neoplasms. These functions include the remote noninvasive activation of drug using physical impacts, e.g. light exposure. Combination of different therapeutic modalities (chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and so forth) with light-responsive carriers enables promising synergetic effect in tumour treatment. The main goal of this review article is to provide the state of the art on light-sensitive delivery systems with the identification of future directions and their implementation in tumour treatment. In particular, this article reviews the general information on the physical and chemical fundamental mechanisms of interaction between light and carrier systems (e.g. plasmonic and dielectric nanoparticles), the design of optically responsive drug carriers (plain and composite), and the mechanisms of light-driven controlled release of bioactive compounds in biological environment. The special focus is dedicated to the most recent advances in optically responsive bioinspired drug vehicles.
Highlights
Drug delivery systems are designed to enable more effective drug administration, to deliver drugs to specific organs, to provide sufficient drug pharmacokinetics, and to improve solubility of drugs
We review the most extensively used light-sensitive composite carriers based on (4.1.1) amphiphilic macromolecules, (4.1.2) liposomes, and (4.1.3) polymeric particles
Viruses are infectious microorganisms consisting of nucleic acids in a protein coating
Summary
Drug delivery systems are designed to enable more effective drug administration, to deliver drugs to specific organs, to provide sufficient drug pharmacokinetics, and to improve solubility of drugs. High temperatures (hyperthermia) can reduce the cell viability; photothermal therapy (PTT) can be applied for such carriers along with the chemotherapy Another photoinduced mechanism involves either disruption of the hydrophobic–hydrophilic formulations with embedded photochromic moieties (e.g. micelles, liposomes [11]) or disassembly of the organic delivery platforms due to photocleavage reactions [12]. Special focus is dedicated to the consideration of the fundamental physical and chemical mechanisms describing light–matter interactions, which stimulate either conformational or thermal changes in the structure of the drug carriers It further summarizes recent progress on the existing plain (individual plasmonic/dielectric materials) and composite (inorganic/organic nanostructured materials, as well as biomimetic platforms) drug delivery carriers, on their design, drug loading/release possibilities, and biomedical applications (Figure 1)
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