Smart Ocular Drug Delivery Systems: Design Principles and Recent Advances

Abstract

The effective treatment of ocular diseases is confronted by various factors, including ocular barriers, limited drug bioavailability, invasive procedures, and low patient compliance. Moreover, new ocular delivery systems have only overcome these problems to a certain extent. In response, smart ocular drug delivery systems have gained attention due to their ability to enable modified drug release along with the additional features they provide to the delivery system, the drug, and the treatment. Smart materials (endogenous and exogenous stimuli responsive) allow the carrier systems to exhibit a variety of properties. Studies on smart ocular drug delivery systems are relatively new and the interest in exogenous stimuli sensitive smart materials has increased in recent years. Therefore, in this review we focused on scientific advancements of these technologies to present a clear understanding of design principles which is key to developing more efficient and reliable ocular drug delivery systems. This review covers ocular barriers, diseases, drug delivery routes, conventional and novel ocular delivery systems along with a focus on the achievements of the smart ocular drug delivery systems developed in recent years. Special emphasis was given to the improved, reduced, or enabled properties of these drug delivery systems.

Keywords

• Endogenous stimuli
• Exogenous stimuli
• Ocular delivery
• Smart materials.

References

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