Recent advances in stimuli-responsive polymer systems for remotely controlled drug release

Promoted by recent advances in developing nanomaterials and drug delivery, stimuli-responsive polymer systems that can remotely trigger drug release in a spatiotemporal manner has attracted significant attention in biotechnology. Implementation of remote-controlled release requires functional polymers to be susceptible to specific physical and/or chemical stimuli. In this minireview, we focus on the recent advances in the construction of stimuli-responsive polymer systems for remotely controlling drug release in response to an externally applied stimulus (light, microwave, magnetic field, electric field and ultrasound). The design of the stimuli-responsive polymer systems and formulations to remotely control the release of drug molecules is also highlighted in this minireview. Furthermore, the potential in biomedical applications and the perspectives of future developments of these stimuli-responsive polymer systems are also briefly discussed.