Bioadhesive Polymers as a Platform for Drug Delivery: Possibilities and Future Trends

This paper aims to review the developments in the bioadhesive drug delivery systems to provide basic principles to the young scientists, which will be useful to circumvent the difficulties associated with the formulation design. Bioadhesion can be obtained by the building of either non-specific interactions with the mucosal surface, which are driven by the physicochemical properties of the particles and the surfaces, or specific interactions when a ligand attached to the particle is used for the recognition and attachment to a specific site at the mucosal surface. Starting with a review of the oral mucosa, mechanism of drug permeation, and characteristics of the desired polymers, this article then proceeds to cover the theories behind the adhesion of bioadhesive polymers to the mucosal epithelium. The primary goal of bioadhesive controlled drug delivery is to localize a delivery device within the body to enhance the drug absorption process in a site-specific manner. This article reviews desirable properties of bioadhesive polymers and the latest advancement in the field.