The Present and Future of Controlled Transport of the Drug into the Organism

Overview

The problems of the systems of controlled (and thus also targeted) transport of the drug into the organism is one of the burning questions of contemporary biogalenics. Various more or less successful solutions were elaborated and applied, beginning with the retardette via the so-called intelligent hydrogels to various automatically controlled implants. Modern microfluidic intelligent biomicrosystems, composed of mutually interconnected microtanks, microjets, micropumps, or microcylinders, are very promising. Anatural component of the complex biomicrosystem is a sensory subsystem for the collection of information from the bio-environment and a processor for the control of the process of drug supply to the organism. The present technologies of such Bio-Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (BioMEMSs) make it possible to revolutionize drug transport not only by facilitating precise dosing and long-term control of the immediate amount of the supplied drug on the basis of the current condition of the patient, but also to target the drug to the site of its pharmacological effect. Though at present there are still many unsolved problems, transition from laboratory conditions to clinical practice has started, and it is only a matter of five to ten years that intelligent BioMEMSs will gradually become a routinely used dosage microform. The paper briefly surveys the present state and the next development of intelligent systems of drug supply into the body of the patient, termed Intelligent Drug Delivery Systems, Intelligent DDSs, or briefly IDDSs.

Key words:
controlled and targeted drug transport – intelligent hydrogels – microsystems – intelligent Bio-MEMSs