Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117585, Singapore.
Newcastle University in Singapore, 537 Clementi Road, SIT Building @ Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore 599493, Singapore.
Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2018 Jul;132:104-138. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2018.07.002. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
With the advancement in medical science and understanding the importance of biodistribution and pharmacokinetics of therapeutic agents, modern drug delivery research strives to utilize novel materials and fabrication technologies for the preparation of robust drug delivery systems to combat acute and chronic diseases. Compared to traditional drug carriers, which could only control the release of the agents in a monotonic manner, the new drug carriers are able to provide a precise control over the release time and the quantity of drug introduced into the patient's body. To achieve this goal, scientists have introduced "programmed" and "on-demand" approaches. The former provides delivery systems with a sophisticated architecture to precisely tune the release rate for a definite time period, while the latter includes systems directly controlled by an operator/practitioner, perhaps with a remote device triggering/affecting the implanted or injected drug carrier. Ideally, such devices can determine flexible release pattern and intensify the efficacy of a therapy via controlling time, duration, dosage, and location of drug release in a predictable, repeatable, and reliable manner. This review sheds light on the past and current techniques available for fabricating and remotely controlling drug delivery systems and addresses the application of new technologies (e.g. 3D printing) in this field.
随着医学科学的进步和人们对治疗剂的生物分布和药代动力学的重要性的认识，现代药物输送研究努力利用新型材料和制造技术来制备强大的药物输送系统，以对抗急性和慢性疾病。与只能以单调方式控制药物释放的传统药物载体相比，新型药物载体能够精确控制药物释放时间和引入患者体内的药物数量。为了实现这一目标，科学家们引入了“编程”和“按需”方法。前者为输送系统提供了复杂的架构，以便在特定时间段内精确调整释放速率，而后者包括直接由操作员/从业者控制的系统，可能通过远程设备触发/影响植入或注射的药物载体。理想情况下，这些设备可以通过以可预测、可重复和可靠的方式控制药物释放的时间、持续时间、剂量和位置，确定灵活的释放模式并增强治疗效果。本文综述了过去和当前可用于制造和远程控制药物输送系统的技术，并讨论了新技术（例如 3D 打印）在该领域的应用。
