Abstracto
- Independently of the discovery of new drugs for good established pharmacologic targets, the commitment of science with the society demands the development of macromolecular analogs, in order to improve the therapeutic possibilities of existing drugs, contributing to an increase on their biological activity and a greater specificity. Every time becomes more strongly the postulated that the application of nanotechnology in medicine is the key to obtain the necessary improvements in diagnosis and anticancer therapy [1]. In order to distinguish them from the other biotechnological products, such as proteins and antibodies; the nanodrugs have been defined as “… complex systems of nanometric scale, at least constituted by two components, being one of them a bioactive agent…” [2]. With several polymer-protein conjugates in the market and more than eleven polymer-drug conjugates in clinical trails; polymer therapeutics can be considered as the first polymeric nanomedicines [3]. It is important to make clear that although this article is focused on the use of polymeric conjugates as anticancerigenic agents, its clinical application is wider than. Other potential applications have been described for these nanomedicines, such as inmunomodulation, antiviral agents or drugs for enzymatic reconstruction, among others.