1. Polymers used in colloidal drug carrier systems, consisting of small particles, show great advantage in drug delivery systems because of optimised drug loading and release properties.
2. A polymer (natural or synthetic) is aggregated with a
drug in controlled drug delivery, and hence it gives an effective and
controlled dose of the drug, avoiding overdose.
3. The degradable polymers are ruptured into biologically
suitable molecules that are assimilated and discarded from the body through the
normal route.
4. Reservoir-based polymers are advantageous in various ways,
like it increase the solubility of incompetently soluble drugs and lowering the
antagonistic side effects of drugs.
5. Magneto-optical polymer-coated and targeted nanoparticles
are multimodal (optically and MRI detectable), while Quantum Dots are only
optically detectable.
6. Some Quantum dots contain Cd, which is known to be toxic
to humans. Magneto/optical nanoparticles, whether polymer-coated or targeted,
are composed of iron oxides/polymers, which are known to be safe, therefore
have a great future.
7. Dextran is the common polymer used for coating of iron
oxide (plasma expander and affinity for iron) and has been used for treatment
of iron anaemias since 1960, and is still in operation.
8. In controlled release, some of the polymers, like
polyurethanes for elasticity, polysiloxanes for insulating ability, are used
for their intended non-biological physical properties.
9. Current polymers, like Poly 2-hydroxy ethyl methacrylate,
Polyvinyl alcohol, Polyethene glycol, are used because of their inert
characteristics, and also, they are free of leachable impurities.
10. In biodegradable polymers, the system is biocompatible
and it will not show dose leaving behind at any time, and the polymer will keep
its properties until after exhaustion of the drug.
11. In hydrogels like drug delivery systems, the properties
of polymer materials like PEG (the easy polymer used to design hydrogels) can
be managed to enhance features like the size of the pore, which is used to
manage the rate of diffusion of the conveyed drugs. PEGylation was considered
to treat many diseases like hepatitis B and C, neutropenia connected with
cancer chemotherapy (PEG-GCSF) 28 and various types of cancers [PEG]
glutaminase merged with a glutamine anti-metabolite 6-diazo-5-oxo-norleucine
(DON].
12. Polymers span from their use as films or binders
covering agents in tablets to flow managing agents in liquids or emulsions for
improving drug security and to alter the delivery characteristics. Micelles,
due to their smaller size, have a small circulation time in the body. Hence, it
results in an advantage of entering the tumour cells easily, because of the EPR
effect.
13. The large importance of polymers in drug delivery has
been noticed because they give a distinctive property which so far has not been
achieved by any of the materials.
14. Polymers are preferable in the fact that they habitually
show a pharmacokinetic profile as contrast to small-scale molecule drugs with
lengthy circulation time, and they also have the ability for tissue targeting.
15. Gold nanoparticles are easy to prepare, have good
capability of co-existence, and have their capacity to attach with other
biomolecules without changing their properties.
16. The biggest benefit of utilising polymers in drug
delivery is their control (manipulation) of their properties (e.g. linkers and
molecular weight) to adapt to the needs of drug delivery systems.