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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Self-Nanoemulsification of Healthy Oils to Enhance the Solubility of Lipophilic Drugs
Published on: July 27, 2022
Perspectives About Self-Immolative Drug Delivery Systems
Rodrigo Vieira Gonzaga1, Lucas Adriano do Nascimento1, Soraya Silva Santos1
1Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 580 - Bl 13 - ZC 05580-000, São Paulo, Brazil.
Abstract:
Self-immolative drug delivery system is one of the delivery systems, which have drawn attention, in recent research, highlighting the improvement they generate in drug selectivity and efficacy. Self-immolative linkers, or spacers, are covalent groups, which have the role of cleavaging two bonds between a protector group and a drug, in the case of drug delivery systems, after a stimuli.The cascade of reactions allows to control the release of the drug. The choice of the adequate self-immolative linker is essential and depend on many variables and goals as well. Many approaches can be explored when designing a system adequate for achieving these goals, especially prodrugs. Some of the most used stimuli-responses for self-immolative drugs - enzyme triggers, chemical triggers, as pH, redox system, 1,4-, 1,6-, 1,8-eliminations, photodegradable triggers, multiple triggers, among others - are described in this ten-year review, along with their application as theranostic agents. We intend that the examples presented in this review inspire researchers working on drug delivery systems to further explore their application.
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