Journal of Functional Biomaterials (Jul 2019)

Stimuli-Responsive Drug Release from Smart Polymers

  • Carlos M. Wells,
  • Michael Harris,
  • Landon Choi,
  • Vishnu Priya Murali,
  • Fernanda Delbuque Guerra,
  • J. Amber Jennings

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb10030034
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 3
p. 34

Abstract

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Over the past 10 years, stimuli-responsive polymeric biomaterials have emerged as effective systems for the delivery of therapeutics. Persistent with ongoing efforts to minimize adverse effects, stimuli-responsive biomaterials are designed to release in response to either chemical, physical, or biological triggers. The stimuli-responsiveness of smart biomaterials may improve spatiotemporal specificity of release. The material design may be used to tailor smart polymers to release a drug when particular stimuli are present. Smart biomaterials may use internal or external stimuli as triggering mechanisms. Internal stimuli-responsive smart biomaterials include those that respond to specific enzymes or changes in microenvironment pH; external stimuli can consist of electromagnetic, light, or acoustic energy; with some smart biomaterials responding to multiple stimuli. This review looks at current and evolving stimuli-responsive polymeric biomaterials in their proposed applications.

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