Mathematical modeling and sustained release property of a 5-fluorouracil imprinted vehicle

Perspectives of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Drug Delivery Systems in Cancer Therapy

Despite the considerable effort made in the past decades, multiple aspects of cancer management remain a challenge for the scientific community. The severe toxicity and poor bioavailability of conventional chemotherapeutics, and the multidrug resistance have turned the attention of researchers towards the quest of drug carriers engineered to offer an efficient, localized, temporized, and doze-controlled delivery of antitumor agents of proven clinical value. Molecular imprinting of chemotherapeutics is very appealing in the design of drug delivery systems since the specific and selective binding sites created within the polymeric matrix turn these complex structures into value-added carriers with tunable features, notably high loading capacity, and a good control of payload release. Our work aims to summarize the present state-of-the art of molecularly imprinted polymer-based drug delivery systems developed for anticancer therapy, with emphasis on the particularities of the chemotherapeutics’ release and with a critical assessment of the current challenges and future perspectives of these unique drug carriers.

An overview on the mathematical modeling of hydrogels' behavior for drug delivery systems

Hydrogels-based systems (HBSs) for drug delivery are nowadays extensively used and the interest in modeling their behavior is dramatically increasing. In this review a critical overview on the modeling approaches is given, quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the publications on the subject, the trend of the publications per year and the type of modeling approaches. It was found that, despite the drug release fitting models (i.e. Higuchi's equation) are the most abundant, their use for HBSs is decreasing in the last years and luckily, considering the limiting assumption on which they were built, they will be confined to simple mathematical fitting equations. Within the mechanistic models the "multi-component" with the swelling approximation (mass transport only) and with the mechanics (fully coupled) are experiencing the highest growth rate, with much more interest toward the last one that, in the next years could be able to provide a first principles model. Statistical models, especially based on the response surface methodology, are rapidly spreading in the scientific community mainly thanks to their ability to be predictive, regardless of the phenomenology, in the analyzed design space with very low efforts. Neural Networks models for HBSs, in countertrend with their use in the pharmaceutical industry, have never take off preferring less data demanding statistical models.

Molecular Imprinting Prevents Environmental Contamination and Body Toxicity from Anticancer Drugs: An Update

Cancer has been responsible for high morbidity and mortality globally. The treatment of cancer is possible using different kinds of therapies using anticancer drugs if it is diagnosed at the right time. Nevertheless, their appropriate administration for maximum therapeutic effect and their elimination from the patient's body causing environmental problems are two big issues which could be successfully abated using molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) owing to their unique features. In this review, we have compiled and discussed the works on the determination and controlled release of anticancer drugs based on MIPs. We also highlighted the current challenges and remedies, and the future direction of MIPs in this area.

5-Fluorouracil delivery from metal-ion mediated molecularly imprinted cryogel discs

The objective of this study is to prepare imprinted cryogel discs for delivery of 5-fluorouracil. The coordinate bond interactions are utilized to accomplish a coordination complex between metal-chelate monomer N-methacryloyl-L-histidine and 5-FU with the assistance of Cu(2+) ion. The complex is copolymerized with hydroxyethyl methacrylate to produce poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-N-methacryloyl-(L)-histidine methyl ester) cryogel discs. The cryogel discs are characterized thoroughly by performing swelling tests, scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction studies. In vitro delivery studies are performed to investigate the effects of cross-linker ratio, medium pH and drug concentration. 5-FU imprinted cryogel discs have highly macroporous structures. Drug molecules are homogeneously dispersed in the 5-FU imprinted cryogel matrix. The cumulative release of 5-FU decreased by increasing the cross-linker density in the polymer matrix. Delivery rate of 5-FU varied with different pH values in a coordination complex since metal ion acts as a Lewis acid, and the ligand, i.e. 5-FU acts as a Lewis base. The cumulative release of 5-FU increased with increasing drug concentration in polymer matrix. The nature of the 5-FU transport mechanism is non-Fickian.