Applications of polymer-based nanomaterials in vaccine, drug delivery, and antibacterial agents

In recent years, nanomaterials, as an emerging material, have attracted extensive concern because of their special structure and function. Polymer-based nanomaterials (PBNs) refer to a class of nanomaterials with polymer molecules as matrix and a nanoscale structure after special treatments such as embedding and adsorption. Due to the properties of polymers are determined by a series of factors such as monomers and polymeric structures, PBNs have a variety of applications, especially in therapy. Current investigations have already demonstrated that PBNs have significant roles as delivery carrier and vaccine adjuvants, nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems and antibacterial materials. However, because of the wide variety of organic molecules, diverse synthesis methods and complex structures, the researches on PBNs stay at the surface stage, which means only a small part of PBNs have been experimentally tested. In this research, the applications of PBNs in therapy field are briefly introduced from the above three aspects including the advantages of PBNs compared with traditional materials, some findings that have been investigated and some researches that are in progress. Safety, nontoxicity, targeting, good stability and other prominent properties are the main reasons that PBNs are suitable for vaccine therapy and drug delivery, showing a great development prospect. The objective of this paper is to summarize some existing examples to prove that PBNs have a very high adaptability in the applications of vaccine treatment and drug delivery, and provide case references and suggestions for future research and investigation.