Recent studies have led to significant advances in understanding the impact of key drug carrier properties such as size, surface chemistry and shape on their performance. Converting this knowledge into improved therapeutic outcomes, however, has proved challenging. This owes to the fact that successful drug delivery carriers have to navigate through multiple physiological hurdles including reticuloendothelial system (RES) clearance, target accumulation, intracellular uptake and endosomal escape. Each of these processes may require unique, and often conflicting, design parameters, thus making it difficult to choose a design that addresses all these hurdles. This challenge can be addressed by designing carriers whose properties can be changed in time so as to successfully navigate them through various biological hurdles. Several carriers have been reported that implement this strategy. This review will discuss the current status and future prospects of this emerging field of "adaptive micro and nanoparticles".
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