Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta," Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy.
Expert Opin Drug Deliv. 2022 Oct;19(10):1203-1215. doi: 10.1080/17425247.2022.2078806. Epub 2022 Jun 26.
Controlled drug delivery through hydrogels is generally limited by the poor barrier that polymeric network can create to diffusion mechanism. Stimuli responsive polymers can help in this way guaranteeing that delivery can be sustained and finely controlled using an external stimulus.
This review provides an overview of recent studies about the use of temperature as an external stimulus able to work as an efficient new route of drug's administration. Thermoresponsive hydrogels are discussed and compared in terms of physical properties and mechanism of drug release considering their classification in intrinsical (formed by thermosensitive polymers) and non-intrinsical (polymers with thermosensitive moieties) hydrogels.
Thermoresponsive hydrogels can be developed by using different polymers added or not with micro/nanoparticles of organic or inorganic origin. In both cases, the final system represents an innovative way for the local and sustained drug delivery in a specific site of the body. In particular, it is possible to obtain an on-demand release of drug by applying a local increase of temperature to the system.
通过水凝胶进行控释药物输送通常受到聚合物网络对扩散机制形成的不良屏障的限制。刺激响应聚合物可以通过使用外部刺激来帮助实现这一点，从而确保输送可以持续且精细地控制。
本综述提供了最近关于使用温度作为外部刺激的研究概述，该刺激可作为药物给药的有效新途径。本文讨论并比较了温敏水凝胶，从物理性质和药物释放机制方面考虑，根据其在内在（由热敏聚合物组成）和非内在（具有热敏部分的聚合物）水凝胶中的分类。
可以使用不同的聚合物来开发温敏水凝胶，这些聚合物可以添加或不添加有机或无机来源的微/纳米粒子。在这两种情况下，最终系统代表了一种在身体的特定部位进行局部和持续药物输送的创新方法。特别是，可以通过对系统施加局部温度升高来实现药物的按需释放。
