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pH-sensitive polymers for drug delivery

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Abstract

Various pH-sensitive polymers have been developed for biomedical applications and recently attracted much attention for pH targeting nanomedicine. Recent development of pH-sensitive polymer systems that sharply respond to specific pH environment in solid tumors and cells and demonstrate modulated properties (e.g., triggered drug release at extratumoral pH, ligands or cell penetrating peptides exposure by shielding/deshielding mechanism or by pop-up mechanism, and endosomal pH targeting) have led significant progress in tumor targeting technology. These pH-sensitive polymer systems combined with nanotechnology could be utilized as an alternative strategy to traditional targeting systems to overcome major problems in current chemotherapy represented by non-specific tissue distribution of the drugs, tumor heterogeneity, and multidrug resistance (MDR) against anticancer drugs. This review highlights recent progress of pH-sensitive polymers with special emphasis on pH targeting nanomedicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, The University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Suite 318, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, USA

    Kang Moo Huh, Young Ju Lee & You Han Bae

  2. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764, Korea

    Kang Moo Huh

  3. Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, The Catholic University of Korea, Gyeonggi, 420-743, Korea

    Han Chang Kang

  4. Gwangju Center, Korea Basic Science Institute, Gwangju, 500-757, Korea

    Young Ju Lee

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  1. Kang Moo Huh
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  2. Han Chang Kang
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  3. Young Ju Lee
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Correspondence to You Han Bae.

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Huh, K.M., Kang, H.C., Lee, Y.J. et al. pH-sensitive polymers for drug delivery. Macromol. Res. 20, 224–233 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13233-012-0059-5

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