MIPs as Drug Delivery Devices

Drug delivery systems (DDS) refer to systems for transporting a pharmaceutical compound in the body as needed to safely achieve its desired therapeutic effect. A number of significant advances are made in the development of new technologies for DDS in the last few years. 

An efficient DDS must be capable of regulating the rate of release (delayed or extended-release systems] and/or targeting the drug to a specific site. An ideal DDS should provide a desired rate of delivery of the therapeutic dose, at the most appropriate place in the body, in order to prolong the duration of pharmacological action and reduce the adverse effects, minimize the dosing frequency and enhance patient compliance (Gong et al., 2008). 

MIPs have the ability to recognize specific bioactive molecules and have a sorption capacity dependent on the template concentration of the surrounding medium. Thus, it has an enormous potential for creating satisfactory DDS, although imprinted DDS have not reached clinical application yet. However, there is the progressive increase in the number of papers devoted to the application of MIPs in the design of new DDS (Bajpai et al., 2008). 

A MIP-based DDS can act as a hydrogels, i.e., as carriers for controlled release of therapeutic compounds. Hydrogels are used as prime carriers for pharmaceutical applications, predominantly as carriers for delivery of drugs, peptides, or proteins (Gong et al, 2008). Another example of MIP hydrogels is imprinted soft contact lenses able to load and release drugs in a controlled way for the treatment of ocular pathologies. 

MIPs based DDS can also act as trap systems for removal of undesired substances from the body, e.g., sugars (Parmpi et al, 2004), cholesterol (Tong et al, 2011) and some amino acids (Gong et al, 2008). The systems able to bind such substances in the gastrointestinal tract, hindering their absorption by the body and may be used instead of or as a complement of the pharmacological therapy for an efficient treatment of disease. 

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