Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Nanomed Nanobiotechnol. 2021 May;13(3):e1689. doi: 10.1002/wnan.1689. Epub 2020 Dec 14.
Polymer conjugation can be considered one of the leading approaches within the vast field of nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems. In fact, such technology can be exploited for delivering an active molecule, such as a small drug, a protein, or genetic material, or it can be applied to other drug delivery systems as a strategy to improve their in vivo behavior or pharmacokinetic activities such as prolonging the half-life of a drug, conferring stealth properties, providing external stimuli responsiveness, and so on. If on the one hand, polymer conjugation with biotech drug is considered the linchpin of the protein delivery field boasting several products in clinical use, on the other, despite dedicated research, conjugation with low molecular weight drugs has not yet achieved the milestone of the first clinical approval. Some of the primary reasons for this debacle are the difficulties connected to achieving selective targeting to diseased tissue, organs, or cells, which is the main goal not only of polymer conjugation but of all delivery systems of small drugs. In light of the need to achieve better drug targeting, researchers are striving to identify more sophisticated, biocompatible delivery approaches and to open new horizons for drug targeting methodologies leading to successful clinical applications. This article is categorized under: Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Emerging Technologies Therapeutic Approaches and Drug Discovery > Nanomedicine for Oncologic Disease Toxicology and Regulatory Issues in Nanomedicine > Regulatory and Policy Issues in Nanomedicine.
聚合物偶联可以被认为是基于纳米技术的药物传递系统这一广阔领域中的主要方法之一。事实上，这种技术可以用于传递活性分子，如小分子药物、蛋白质或遗传物质，或者可以应用于其他药物传递系统，作为改善其体内行为或药代动力学活性的策略，如延长药物半衰期、赋予隐身特性、提供对外界刺激的响应等。如果一方面，与生物技术药物的聚合物偶联被认为是蛋白质传递领域的关键，因为该领域有几个产品已经在临床使用，另一方面，尽管进行了专门的研究，与低分子量药物的偶联尚未达到首次临床批准的里程碑。造成这种失败的一些主要原因是实现对疾病组织、器官或细胞的选择性靶向的困难，这不仅是聚合物偶联的主要目标，也是所有小分子药物传递系统的主要目标。鉴于需要实现更好的药物靶向，研究人员正在努力寻找更复杂、更具生物相容性的传递方法，并为药物靶向方法学开辟新的视野，从而实现成功的临床应用。本文属于以下类别： 治疗方法和药物发现 > 新兴技术 治疗方法和药物发现 > 用于肿瘤疾病的纳米医学 毒理学和纳米医学中的监管问题 > 纳米医学中的监管和政策问题。
