Phenylboronic acid-functionalized polymer nanocarriers for glucose-triggered drug release

Recently, glucose-sensitive polymer drug delivery systems have attracted growing attention, which control drug release automatically and continuously depending on the change of glucose concentration. Glucose-sensitive drug nanocarriers based on phenylboronic acid (PBA) have shown promising potential applications in the therapy of diabetes due to the great stability, long term storability, and reversible glucose-sensitivity. Particularly, the PBA-based glucose-sensitive polymer nanocarriers have become the research focus in this field. This review covers the recent development in the PBA-based glucose-sensitive nanocarriers, such as namomicelles, nanovesicles, nanogels, and hybrid nanoparticles. The development trend and application prospect of PBA-functionalized polymer nanocarriers in self-regulated drug delivery are also predicted.