Drug-Initiated Synthesis of Polymer Prodrugs: Combining Simplicity and Efficacy in Drug Delivery

In the field of nanomedicine, the global trend over the past few years has been toward the design of highly sophisticated drug delivery systems with active targeting and/or imaging capabilities, as well as responsiveness to various stimuli to increase their therapeutic efficacy. However, providing sophistication generally increases complexity that could be detrimental in regards to potential pharmaceutical development. An emerging concept to design efficient yet simple drug delivery systems, termed the "drug-initiated" method, consists of growing short polymer chains from drugs in a controlled fashion to yield well-defined drug-polymer prodrugs. These materials are obtained in a reduced amount of synthetic steps and can be self-assembled into polymer prodrug nanoparticles, be incorporated into lipid nanocarriers or be used as water-soluble polymer prodrugs. This Perspective article will capture the recent achievements from the "drug-initiated" method and highlight the great biomedical potential of these materials.