Endogenous-triggered Delivery in Localized Controlled Drug Delivery Systems (LCDDSs)

Responsive and smart materials/biomaterials are responsive/sensitive to signals originating from physiological systems, or to abnormalities originating from pathological defects that can interact with or be triggered by the biological environments. Responsive and smart materials/biomaterials are interesting in drug delivery platforms/devices for developing next-generation accurate medicines. For a deeper consideration of the different endogenous-responsive mechanisms of materials and biomaterials, many researches have been established for the development of micro/nano-fabrication, pharmaceutical science, biomedical engineering and materials chemistry to improve endogenous-responsive biomaterials for various drug delivery applications, such as medical bio-devices, drug delivery, localized controlled drug delivery systems (LCDDS), tissue engineering and theranostics. This chapter reports and discusses significant developments and progresses in the design and fabrication of endogenous-responsive LCDDS that have the ability to control or regulate the distribution of therapeutic agents (drugs) in response to a specific endogenous stimulus (changes in redox, pH, enzyme and oxidation).

Keywords: Endogenous stimuli, Enzyme-sensitive materials, Oxidation-sensitive materials, pH-sensitive materials, Redox-sensitive drug delivery, Stimuli-responsive biomaterials