Abstract
We reviewed the fundamental aspects and applications of slide-ring materials as new polymeric materials for DDS. The slide-ring gel is one of the slide-ring materials using sliding features most effectively and has movable cross-linking junctions. As a result, it exhibited mechanical properties quite different from chemical gels, rather close to biomaterials. The small angle neutron scattering studies of the slide-ring gels revealed that the pulley effect relaxed the inhomogeneous structure in the slide-ring gels. In addition, we introduced the sol-gel transition of methylated polyrotaxane as a new thermoreversible DDS system. Finally, we discussed the application of the slide-ring materials to DDS with the future view.
