Novel pH-Sensitive Biodegradable Polymeric Drug Delivery Systems Based on Ketal Polymers

This article reviews the recent developments on novel pH-sensitive ketal-based biodegradable polymeric drug delivery systems. Due to the degradation of ketal derivatives, neutral alcohols and ketones, ketal derivatives can be used to fabricate pH-degradable polymer with pH-degradable ketal linkages in new drug delivery systems by avoiding inflammatory problems. Due to the novelty of ketal polymers, there were few reports about ketal polymers. The review starts with a brief introduction to the pH-sensitive drug delivery system, followed by the structure, preparation and characterization techniques of ketal polymers. Thereafter, the promising applications in various diseases in relation to micro/nano drug carriers based on ketal polymers are summarized and discussed.