Temperature-Responsive Smart Nanocarriers for Delivery of Therapeutic Agents: Applications and Recent Advances Publisher Pubmed



Karimi M^{3, 4, 5} ; Sahandi Zangabad P^{1, 2, 4} ; Ghasemi A² ; Amiri M² ; Bahrami M² ; Malekzad H^{4, 6} ; Ghahramanzadeh Asl H² ; Mahdieh Z⁷ ; Bozorgomid M⁸ ; Ghasemi A² ; Rahmani Taji Boyuk MR² ; Hamblin MR^{5, 9, 10} Show Affiliations
Source: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Published:2016

Abstract

Smart drug delivery systems (DDSs) have attracted the attention of many scientists, as carriers that can be stimulated by changes in environmental parameters such as temperature, pH, light, electromagnetic fields, mechanical forces, etc. These smart nanocarriers can release their cargo on demand when their target is reached and the stimulus is applied. Using the techniques of nanotechnology, these nanocarriers can be tailored to be target-specific, and exhibit delayed or controlled release of drugs. Temperature-responsive nanocarriers are one of most important groups of smart nanoparticles (NPs) that have been investigated during the past decades. Temperature can either act as an external stimulus when heat is applied from the outside, or can be internal when pathological lesions have a naturally elevated termperature. A low critical solution temperature (LCST) is a special feature of some polymeric materials, and most of the temperature-responsive nanocarriers have been designed based on this feature. In this review, we attempt to summarize recent efforts to prepare innovative temperature-responsive nanocarriers and discuss their novel applications. © 2016 American Chemical Society.