Sugar-labeled and PEGylated (bio)degradable polymers intended for targeted drug delivery systems

This paper aims at giving a comprehensive view of the research effort devoted to the preparation of sugar coated long-circulating degradable polymers intended for drug delivery applications. In the recent past, many research projects have focused on the controlled drug delivery and, therefore, on the design of drug carriers. Among them, polymeric carriers have great potential because they can be chemically modified to a large extent and so endowed with specific properties. For instance, depending on the selected polymer, either the circulation time in the bloodstream can be increased very significantly (long-circulating polymer) or the drug carrier can be completely degraded after administration. Moreover, active targeting, i.e., carriers bearing a ligand known for specific affinity for one tissue, has emerged as a method of choice in targeting the delivery of drugs. This concept is of the utmost importance because the large variety of receptors present in the body makes the selective targeting a must in order to prevent any healthy tissue from being damaged irreversibly. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that carbohydrates are very promising pilot molecules for the next generation of drug delivery systems.