{"term":{"id":"13931","title":"drug carrier","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - drug carrier","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.13931","code":"13931","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Macromolecule or polymer used to transport a pharmacologically active compound to be released later on due to an abiotic or biotic process.","notes":{"1":"A complementary property of a polymeric drug carrier is targeting, which can be obtained by specific interactions with a receptor if bearing a specific ligand or by selection depending on other factors such as permeation through membranes or capillaries."},"links":[{"term":"biotic","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/13884"},{"term":"controlled delivery","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/13886"},{"term":"pharmacologically active","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/13941"},{"term":"sustained release","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/13920"},{"term":"targeting","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/13946"}],"sources":["PAC, 2012, 84, 377. 'Terminology for biorelated polymers and applications (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 399 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/PAC-REC-10-12-04)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13931\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13931\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/13931\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'drug carrier' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.13931","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-05-08T09:04:42+00:00"}}