Abstract
Responsive polymer brushes are a category of polymer brushes that are capable of conformational and chemical changes in response to external stimuli. They offer unique opportunities for the control of bio-nano interactions due to the precise control of chemical and structural parameters such as the brush thickness, density, chemistry, and architecture. The design of responsive brushes at the surface of nanomaterials for theranostic applications has developed rapidly. These coatings can be generated from a very broad range of nanomaterials, without compromising their physical, photophysical, and imaging properties. Although the use of responsive brushes for nanotheranostic remains in its early stages, in this review, the aim is to present how the systems developed to date can be combined to control sensing, imaging, and controlled delivery of therapeutics. The recent developments for such design and associated methods for the synthesis of responsive brushes are discussed. The responsive behaviors of homo polymer brushes and brushes with more complex architectures are briefly reviewed, before the applications of responsive brushes as smart delivery systems are discussed. Finally, the recent work is summarized on the use of responsive polymer brushes as novel biosensors and diagnostic tools for the detection of analytes and biomarkers.
Highlights
Nanotheranostics integrate diagnostic and therapeutic functions in one system and have received significant attention in the past few decades for the improvement of diagnosis, and the prevention and treatment of diseases.[1, 2] Advances in nanotheranostics benefit greatly from deeper understanding of the interactions between nanomaterials and biological systems, the refinement of multifunctional nanohybrids for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy, and the ability to harness the unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials for specific and selective detection and treatment of diseases.[3] having shown promising results in many in vitro and in vivo studies, the concept of nanotheranostics remains a new paradigm and its clinical use is still in its infancy
We presented the recent advances in the rational design and synthesis of responsive polymer brushes for applications in smart delivery systems and biosensors/detection
The versatility and precision in design and fabrication of responsive polymer brush-based materials constitute a clear advantage for application in the biomedical field, as intelligent delivery platforms for therapeutic molecules and smart biosensing/detection tools
Summary
Nanotheranostics integrate diagnostic and therapeutic functions in one system and have received significant attention in the past few decades for the improvement of diagnosis, and the prevention and treatment of diseases.[1, 2] Advances in nanotheranostics benefit greatly from deeper understanding of the interactions between nanomaterials and biological systems, the refinement of multifunctional nanohybrids for simultaneous diagnosis and therapy, and the ability to harness the unique physicochemical properties of nanomaterials for specific and selective detection and treatment of diseases.[3]. Such thin brush coatings are capable of generating a rapid response without significant alteration of physical properties of the cores/substrates, compared to bulk polymers, which often result in long response times. Responsive polymer brushes display highly stable retention and loading of therapeutics such as small nucleic acids owing to the unique crowding architecture of the polymer chains.[18] The amount of delivery agents required to achieve therapeutic efficacy could potentially be reduced, leading to safer and more efficient transportation.[19] the versatile chemistries and functionalities offered during polymer brush synthesis allow the incorporation of multiple stimuliresponsive moieties This can allow the synthesis of two or more chemically different species in one system, i.e. multi-responsive polymer brushes with various architectures, which greatly expand the application scope of responsive polymer brush coatings in theranostic systems. For a broader review of polymer brushes in the biomedical field and comparison with other functionalisation strategies and responsive polymers, we refer the reader to more exhaustive review articles[14, 15, 20,21,22]
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