Química medicinal

Emerging Strategies for Controlling Drug Release by Using Visible/Near IR Light

Abstract

Bio Moses and Youngjae You

Effective drug delivery systems require controlled drug release at the target cancer cell. While strategies for targeting tumors have been extensively studied, a better understanding of the necessary technology for controlling the spatiotemporal release of a drug is still needed. It has been established that the use of light can be a unique tool for controlling drug release. While UV light can be used for the release of biologically active, caged (deactivated) compounds, clinical application is restricted because of its limited ability to penetrate tissues as well as its cytotoxicity. Recently, the use of both tissue-penetrable visible and near IR have shown promise to overcome these limitations. In this short review, we introduce new smart strategies to convert such low energy light to a tissue-penetrable stimulus for both actively and remotely controlling drug release.