ABSTRACT
Advances in nanotechnology have had remarkable effects on biomedical sciences, specifically in the fields of drug delivery, diagnostics, monitoring, and control of biological systems. Different nano-systems with unique compositions and biological properties have been investigated for drug and gene delivery applications. Among them, polymeric nanomedicines have been comprehensively utilized in the design of nano-sized delivery vehicles of chemotherapeutics for clinical cancer/non-cancerous therapy. In this entry, we provide a review on the development of polymeric nanomedicine for therapy. This entry describes the progress that has been made in the field of polymeric nanomedicine that brings the science closer to clinical realization of nano-polymeric therapeutics for their application in disease treatment. Early products were developed as anticancer agents, but treatments for a range of non-cancerous diseases and different routes of administration followed. Despite the broad applications of polymeric nanomedicine, the need for progression of an appropriate regulatory framework is at the forefront of the scientific discussion. Several regulatory checkpoints should be taken into account before a polymeric nanomedicine is commercially produced. The need for controlled release and emergence of different biodegradable polymers are highlighted in this entry. Smart polymeric nanomaterials built of stimuli-responsive polymers are discussed with their various applications in the biomedical field. Stimuli-responsive polymeric carriers show a sharp change in properties upon a slight change in environmental conditions such as temperature, light, magnetic field, or pH. This behavior can be employed for the preparation of the so-called “smart” drug delivery systems, which enable the drug delivery systems to release their drug payload at the specific site of disease, which is called targeted drug delivery. Polymeric nano-carriers, with bioactive molecules being either conjugated or encapsulated, have been developed into a variety of different architectures, including polymer–drug conjugates, dendrimers, micelles, vesicles, liposomes, polymersomes, and polysaccharide-based nanoparticles. In addition to the incorporation of drug molecules inside a polymer particle, the polymer itself could act as a drug without any incorporated drug molecules. Polymeric drugs are defined as functional high molecular weight polymers that selectively recognize, sequester, and remove disease-causing species. Here, we summarize the developments of polymeric drugs such as sequestrants of phosphates, iron, bile acids, as well as toxins. Finally, successful applications of theoretical methods to the development of new drug formulations have been discussed as well as the future prospects of polymeric nanomedicine.
