Polymer Complex Multilayers for Drug Delivery and Medical Devices

Abstract

Polymer complex multilayers (PCMs) can be engineered into various structures with tunable properties via layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly driven by noncovalent forces. Due to their ease of preparation, capability of integrating multiple functional components, and excellent substrate compliance, biocompatible PCMs as coating materials or individual entities have attracted extensive attention in biomedical applications. This Spotlight on Applications presents recent progress on PCMs applied for drug delivery and medical devices. We provide several examples to address the importance of using PCM platforms to achieve controlled drug delivery including stimuli-triggered release, sustained release, and spatiotemporal sequential release. The effects of PCM coatings on the bioresponse regulation and performance enhancement of implantable devices are also highlighted. Moreover, the design and fabrication of flexible electrical and optical elements modified with LBL PCMs have been discussed, which demonstrates the great potential to advance emerging wearable devices for disease monitoring and health management.

Non-soluble antibacterial polyurethane based on cation mechanism and functionalized by chitosan and heparin azide

“…Polymers play an important role in preparing medical material and are widely used in the medical field [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Sometimes they are not fully suitable for the clinical applications as using for interventional materials and infecting by bacteria susceptibly, resulting in catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) [8][9][10].…”