ABSTRACT
Polymer nanomaterials have been attracted more and more attention because of their advantages such as long circulation, reduced immunogenicity and less side effects, and have become a hot research topic in nanomaterials. However, the number of polymer nanomedicines successfully applied in clinical application is very limited, and the unsatisfactory pharmacokinetic behavior is one of the main reasons for thisresult. After polymer nanoparticles enter the body, they will release free drugs and polymer excipients. Polymer nanoparticles are the loaded drugs and free drugs are the active chemicals for efficacy, while polymer excipients may cause excipient drug interactions. Therefore, the focus of the pharmacokinetics study of polymer nanoparticles should not be only limited to the free drugs themselves, but should also focus on the loaded drugs, free drugs and polymer excipients. The dynamic changes of polymer excipients and their metabolites pose new requirements and challenges for the bioanalysis of polymer nanomedicines. The characteristics and application scope of common analytical methods for detection polymer nanomedicines including chromatographic assay will be discussed in this paper. Moreover, this review will also summarize the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of polymer nanomedicines. We hope this review will provide reference for the pharmacokinetics study, safety and effectiveness evaluation of polymer nanomedicines.