Biodegradable Conducting Polymers for Smart Drug Delivery
摘要
Although polymers like poly (ethylene-vinyl acetate) (PEVA) which is a nonbiodegradable in nature have been proved useful to a greater extent for drug delivery applications, they have limitations like accumulation in the body, surgical removal after drug delivery, and many more adverse biological responses. Therefore, biodegradable polymers like chitosan and PLA can be implied for more sustainable and act as an efficient biocompatible alternative in such cases. Furthermore, to enhance the effect of biodegradability, polymers are engineered in such a way that they can produce a synergistic response to electrical stimuli to promote one of the major requirements in drug delivery, that is, controlled drug release. On the one hand where the property of the polymer enables effective elimination after drug release, the same offers the stimuli responsive system for variable drug dosing. Overall, this chapter discusses the overview of various biodegradable polymers, their advantages over the conventional polymers and the additional impact of their conductive behavior to generate enhanced efficacy, reduce toxicity, better decomposition, and positive environmental impact.