Polymeric drug carrier

Kanke, M., Geissler, R. G., Powell, D., Kaplan, A., and De-Luca, P. P., Interaction of microspheres with blood constituents. III. Macrophage phagocytosis of various types of polymeric drug carriers, J. Parent. Sci. Technol., 42, 157, 1988. 

Probably the most promising polymeric drug carrier system involves polysaccharide molecules. These are natural polymers and are often biodegradable to products that are useful to the host or easily eliminated by the host. Dextrans have been the most extensively used polysaccharide for macromolecular prodrug preparations (79). These materials are biocompatible and the in vivo fate is directly related to their molecular weight. Moreover these macromolecules can be easily targetted to the hepatocytes with D-mannose or L-fucose (20). 

Macromolecules as drug carriers may be divided into degradable and nondegradable types based on their fate within the organism. Biodegradable polymeric drug carriers are traditionally derived from natural products polysaccharides, poly(amino acids) in the hope that the body s natural catabolic mechanisms will act to break down the macromolecular structure into small,... 

Sunamoto J et al. (1987) International Symposium on Polymer Drugs and Polymeric Drug Carriers, 28-30 Oct 1987, Nagasaki ... 

Fig. 3 A tumor-targeted polymer-drug conjugate. The major elements include (i) a polymeric drug-carrier that is water-soluble, bicompatible or biodegradable, non-immunogenic (ii) targeting moieties (iii) a linker between a drug and the carrier. The linker can be a) a chemical bond such as ester or amide. An ester bond is more stable at lysosomal pH than at plasma pH (7.4) while an amide bond is stable at both lysosomal and plasma pH b) an oligopeptide linker that is degradable by specific enzymatic hydrolysis and c) an acid labile linker that is degradable at lysosomal pH but stable at plasma pH.

Vert, M. Polyvalent polymeric drug carriers. Crit. Rev. Ther. Drug Carrier Syst. 1986, 2, 291-327. 

Kopecek J. Synthesis of tailor-made soluble polymeric drug carriers. In Kim SW, Anderson J, eds. Recent Advances in Drug Delivery Systems. New York Plenum Press, 1984 41. 

Fig. 1 Various polymeric drug carriers (a) conjugates, (b) dendrimers, (c) nanoparticles, (d) micelles, (e) nanogels, (f) polymersomes...

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