Title
Drug delivery systems based on intrinsically conducting polymers
Date Issued
10 September 2019
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
review article
Author(s)
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
This work provides an overview of the up to date research related to intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) and their function as novel drug delivery systems (DDSs). Drugs administrated to patients do not always reach the targeted organ, which may affect other tissues leading to undesired side-effects. To overcome these problems, DDSs are under development. Nowadays, it is possible to target the administration and, most importantly, to achieve a controlled drug dosage upon external stimuli. Particularly, the attention of this work focuses on the drug release upon electrical stimuli employing ICPs. These are well-known organic polymers with outstanding electrical properties similar to metals but also retaining some advantageous characteristics normally related to polymers, like mechanical stability and easiness of processing. Depending on the redox state, ICPs can incorporate or release anionic or cationic molecules on-demand. Besides, the releasing rate can be finely tuned by the type of electrical stimulation applied. Another interesting feature is that ICPs are capable to sense redox molecules such as dopamine, serotonin or ascorbic acid among others. Therefore, future prospects go towards the design of materials where the releasing rate could be self-adjusted in response to changes in the surrounding environment. This recompilation of ideas and projects provides a critic outline of ICPs synthesis progress related to their use as DDSs. Definitely, ICPs are a very promising branch of DDSs where the dose can be finely tuned by the exertion of an external stimulus, hence optimizing the repercussions of the drug and diminishing its side effects.
Start page
244
End page
264
Volume
309
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Farmacología, Farmacia
Química medicinal
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85071707970
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Controlled Release
ISSN of the container
01683659
Sponsor(s)
Authors acknowledge MINECO/FEDER ( RTI2018-098951-B-I00 ) and the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca ( 2017SGR359 ). Support for the research of C.A. was received through the prize “ICREA Academia” for excellence in research funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya .
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus