Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
2071068 Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 2012 14 Pages PDF
Abstract

Titratable polyanions, and more particularly polymers bearing carboxylate groups, have been used in recent years to produce a variety of pH-sensitive colloids. These polymers undergo a coil-to-globule conformational change upon a variation in pH of the surrounding environment. This conformational change can be exploited to trigger the release of a drug from a drug delivery system in a pH-dependent fashion. This review describes the current status of pH-sensitive vesicles, polymeric micelles, and nanospheres prepared with polycarboxylates and their performance as nano-scale drug delivery systems, with emphasis on our recent contribution to this field.

Graphical abstractProtonation- (A) and ionization-induced (B) drug release from different nanocarriers containing titratable polyanions.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (472 K)Download as PowerPoint slide

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Life Sciences Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology Biotechnology
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