Controlled drug release biopolymers

The necessity created by the development of drugs that cannot be administered by the traditional routes, namely, intramuscular, subcutaneous, or intravenous as weU as the frequent convenience of delivering a drug in a locahzed and controlled form in the place where it has to exert its action, has promoted research on the area and development of biomaterials. Therefore, biodegradable natural polymers, among which several biopolymers can be cited, have been used as platforms for various controlled drug-release formulations. As a result of the use of biopolymers, many academic and industrial scientists have decided to investigate their behavior. 

A biopolymer-based drug carrier designed for protein delivery must meet the following requirements. In addition to controlling the release of drug, (1) the carrier must be biocompatible and degraded products must be nontoxic, (2) the carrier must incorporate the protein in a sufficiently gentle manner to retain bioactive conformation, and (3) the carrier must be able to incorporate the protein in pharmaceutical scale [12]. 

H.-P. Lim, B.-T. Tey, and E.-S. Chan, Particle designs for the stabilization and controUed-delivery of protein drugs by biopolymers A case study on insulin. Journal of Controlled Release, 186 (0) 11-21,2014. 

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