Photoresponsive Drug Delivery Systems: Challenges and Progress

Photoresponsive drug delivery systems (PDDSs) have emerged as a promising toolbox for drug delivery, offering precise control over the site, duration, and dosage of light-triggered medication. It allows controlled drug release, photo-triggered targeting, diagnosis, and treatment, improving the precision and efficacy of therapies for various diseases. Despite progress in designing different PDDSs, clinical translation has been limited due to various obstacles. Herein, this review article focuses on three critical challenges of PDDSs: 1) accumulation at diseased lesions, 2) precision of light irradiation, and 3) penetration of light in tissues. Also, this article summarizes and discusses current advancements and strategies to address these challenges. Overall, it emphasizes the need to clarify the current challenges from bench to bedside and develop strategies to enhance therapeutic outcomes, increase compatibility and patient compliance, and unlock the possibilities in different clinical therapies. Three critical challenges of PDDSs: 1). Accumulation: Low accumulation and retention of PDDSs at the target sites often limit the efficacy; 2). Precision: The unpredictability of the in vivo fate of PDDSs hinders accurate prediction of biological effects, as well as irradiation positions and durations; 3). Penetration: The lack of penetration of light limits the applications in deep tissues and organs. Created with BioRender.com. image