Design synthesis and characterization of stimuli responsive polymeric nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery

Abstract

newline Design of safe and efficient drug delivery system to administer therapeutic agents for life threatening diseases remains to be a major challenge in the field of drug delivery, where, the therapeutic agents are often associated with serious side effects of the drug exhibiting substantial toxicity to normal cells. Restriction to minimal dose of therapeutic agents is strategically used to avoid unwanted side effects, which leads to less effective treatment and associated drug resistance in the diseased cells. Nanomaterials, such as polymeric micelles, liposomes, nanogels, nanospheres and polymer drug conjugates, serve as one of the most recent and convenient technology to address the drawbacks associated with drug administration without any toxicity to the normal cells. These nanocarriers are capacitated to passively accumulate in tissues by enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect, thus, exhibiting enhanced therapeutic competence. For further improved target specific drug delivery, several recent research works have dedicated towards the development of stimuli-sensitive drug delivery system, where, the release of therapeutic moiety is regulated by physiological stimulus (such as pH, temperature, glutathione, etc.) after reaching the diseased site. The present work focuses on inflammation and lung cancer, where, the cellular microenvironment of an affected tissue is often different when compared to that of the normal tissues owing to accelerated atypical cellular metabolic reactions in the diseased cells.