Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Recommendations P olymer-drug conjugate materials are an essential aspect of polymer therapeutics, in which therapeutic agents form a chemical bond with polymer chains.These materials avoid the problems and limitations commonly encountered with traditional drug-loaded polymer systems in which drugs are simply physically entrapped (e.g., burst release, drug-polymer miscibility issue, poor drug loadings).Such a strategy applies not only to small drug molecules but also to biomacromolecules such as therapeutic proteins/peptides or antibodies.Chemistry therefore plays a central role in this context, as the character and attributes of the linker connecting the polymer and therapeutic components are crucial, since the cleavage of the linker dictates drug release kinetics and therefore influences the therapeutic outcome.Thanks to advances in polymer chemistry, physical chemistry, and supramolecular chemistry, these conjugates can take the form of water-soluble macromolecules, nanoparticles, polymersomes, micelles, giant amphiphiles, protein nanoparticles, inorganic nanocarriers, or hydrogels, covering a diverse range of drug delivery systems.This Special Issue highlights recent advances of polymer-drug conjugate materials featured in Chemistry of Materials from 2024 up to early 2025.A couple of authoritative Review and Perspective articles address important topics in the field, such as those by Elizabeth R. Gillies, who discusses pH-sensitive polymer-drug conjugates (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c01700);Arjaree Jobdeedamrong and Daniel Crespy, who focus on redoxresponsive polyprodrugs (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater. 4c03181); Kim and co-workers, who address stimuliresponsive polymer-drug conjugates for cancer immunotherapy (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c02472); and Pan and coworkers, who highlight the field of conjugated polymers for NIR-II phototheranostic applications (DOI: 10.1021/acs. chemmater.4c02176).The topics of macrocycle-based antibacterial materials, addressed by Wang and co-workers (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c03322), and the design of hydrogels for affinity-based release of therapeutic proteins, by Teal and co-workers (DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c02242), also showcase fine examples of innovative polymer-drug conjugates.Polymer-drug conjugates can be advantageously used to improve targeting efficiency.For instance, Kulkarni and coworkers studied the in vitro and in vivo kidney targeting of polymer conjugates based on poly(N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide) of varying molecular weight and charge via modification of their side chain reactive groups (
Source: Chemistry of Materials
Author: Julien Nicolas
Language: English
Subfield: Biomaterials
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409684770