Abstract
In recent years, temporal control of drug delivery has been of interest in basic and applied fields as a new approach to achieve improved drug therapies. This new drug delivery may be achieved by utilization of “intelligent” polymeric materials having auto-feedback functions. Stimuli-responsive polymers have been investigated as potential molecular devices to achieve intelligent drug delivery systems such as self-regulating and externally modulated drug delivery systems. A stimuli-responsive polymer (sensing) can change its structure and physical properties (responding) in response to appropriate external stimuli (signals), which changes can subsequently affect drug release (acting) from a drug reservoir. In this paper, this new concept of intelligent drug delivery system is described in detail and related studies are reviewed and discussed.
