Abstract

POLYMERIC PRODRUGS- A REVIEW

Vikas* and Semwal A.

ABSTRACT

Polymeric Prodrugs have gained attention during last few decades due to several advantages. Polymeric Prodrugs are the drug-polymer conjugates that are prepared by conjugation of drug and polymer in which the drugs are administered in an inactive form and get converted to active form at the targeted site/ tumor cell. Polymeric Prodrugs were developed to improve the stability, prolong half-life, enhance solubility, improve the aqueous solubility, prolonged and controlled drug release, better release profile and delivery at targeted site. Apart from above mentioned advantages, the polymeric prodrug technique is utilized to preserve the normal healthy tissue from drug exposure and to overcome the drug resistance. The researchers have developed many products using the conjugation technique and have been used in market for the treatment of different diseases. Prof Ringsdorf proposed the drug-polymer conjugate model for the first time in the mid 1970’s. This review deals with the objective for design of polymer-drug conjugates, advantages and disadvantages, requirements for selection of drug candidate for polymeric prodrug, requirements for selecting polymers as candidate drug carriers, design and synthesis methods for polymeric prodrugs, method to reduce steric hindrances exhibited by polymers and the bio-components. An overview of reviews was conducted to locate published literature between 2000 and 2020.

Keywords: Drug-polymer conjugation, Polymeric Prodrugs, targeted delivery, controlled release, prolonged release, bioavailability enhancers.