Perspectives of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Drug Delivery Systems in Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Despite the considerable effort made in the past decades, multiple aspects of cancer management remain a challenge for the scientific community. The severe toxicity and poor bioavailability of conventional chemotherapeutics, and the multidrug resistance have turned the attention of researchers towards the quest of drug carriers engineered to offer an efficient, localized, temporized, and doze-controlled delivery of antitumor agents of proven clinical value. Molecular imprinting of chemotherapeutics is very appealing in the design of drug delivery systems since the specific and selective binding sites created within the polymeric matrix turn these complex structures into value-added carriers with tunable features, notably high loading capacity, and a good control of payload release. Our work aims to summarize the present state-of-the art of molecularly imprinted polymer-based drug delivery systems developed for anticancer therapy, with emphasis on the particularities of the chemotherapeutics' release and with a critical assessment of the current challenges and future perspectives of these unique drug carriers.Polymers 2019, 11, 2085 2 of 33 normal and abnormal cells, the severe toxicity and poor bioavailability of conventional drugs, and the multidrug resistance are issues that still need to be addressed by the scientific community.Polymers 2019, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 34 of both normal and abnormal cells, the severe toxicity and poor bioavailability of conventional drugs, and the multidrug resistance are issues that still need to be addressed by the scientific community.

Developments of Smart Drug-Delivery Systems Based on Magnetic Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for Targeted Cancer Therapy: A Short Review

“…The direct systemic administration leads to extreme fluctuation in the drug plasmatic concentration causing high toxicity, poor specificity and massive side effects on healthy cells. These drawbacks associated with the conventional chemotherapeutic agents as the leading causes of the dramatic decrease of their therapeutic value should be addressed with novel strategies [ 4 ], concerning the use of tumor-targeted delivery systems capable of promoting specific drug accumulation at the pathologic site.…”

“…An ideal drug-delivery system (DDS) can ensure the release of the therapeutic agent at the right site and in the right dosage for the required period to maximize its efficacy by the accumulation at the site of action and reach the therapeutic concentration level within the therapeutic window while minimizing the side effects on healthy tissues [ 3 , 8 ]. Furthermore, this delivery system necessarily should be biocompatible and biodegradable to be able to enter the body without specific toxicity, immunogenicity and accumulation in other organs than the tumor [ 4 ].…”

“…It is hard to conclude whether they are equal to or better than conventional treatments in regards to “treating” cancer [ 7 ]. Lack of therapeutic-acceptable drug-loading capacity and initial fast premature drug release leads to a suboptimal activity at the targeted site [ 4 ]. Dose-dumping induced toxicity, inconsistent release pattern [ 2 ], changes in the physicochemical properties of the NPs in the systemic circulation such as in particle size and aggregation behavior [ 28 ] are some of the persisted limits with these formulations and arise the necessity of further studies to address these issues.…”

“…Therefore, the current focus on developing nanomedicines of high therapeutic index lies in tailoring the fundamental physicochemical properties of NPs, most importantly, selectivity, stability, surface properties and size [ 22 ]. Among various DDSs, one of the newly viable developed strategies for this aim could be molecular imprinting technology (MIT) to generate new nanoscale and larger tailor-made pharmacological complexes [ 4 ].…”

“…The obtained MIPs possess tailored cavities resembling the original template in terms of size, shape and orientation [ 36 ]. Regarding drug delivery, due to the intermolecular interactions like hydrogen bonds, dipole-dipole and ionic interactions between the template molecule and polymer functional groups, these cavities are capable of enhancing the NPs loading capacity, improving drug stability, solubility and adjusting the drug release kinetics [ 4 , 37 , 38 ]. An intelligent or smart drug release is the anticipated release of a therapeutic agent on-demand.…”