Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Joshi-Barr, Shivanjali
• de Gracia Lux, Caroline
• Mahmoud, Enas
• Almutairi, Adah

Titel

Exploiting oxidative microenvironments in the body as triggers for drug delivery systems

Ist Teil von

• Antioxidants & redox signaling, 2014-08, Vol.21 (5), p.730

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) play an important role in cell signaling pathways. However, the increased production of these species may disrupt cellular homeostasis, giving rise to pathological conditions. Biomaterials that are responsive to ROS/RNS can be strategically used to specifically release therapeutics and diagnostic agents to regions undergoing oxidative stress. Many nanocarriers intended to exploit redox micro-environments as triggers for drug release, summarized and compared in this review, have recently been developed. We describe these carriers' chemical structures, strategies for payload protection and oxidation-selective release, and ROS/RNS sensitivity as tested in initial studies. ROS/RNS are unstable, so reliable measures of their concentrations in various conditions are scarce. Combined with the dearth of materials shown to respond to physiologically relevant levels of ROS/RNS, evaluations of their true sensitivity are difficult. Oxidation-responsive nanocarriers developed thus far show tremendous potential for applicability in vivo; however, the sensitivity of these chemistries needs to be fine tuned to enable responses to physiological levels of ROS and RNS.