Given the increasing evidence indicates that many pathological conditions are associated with elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, there have been growing research efforts focused on the development of ROS‐responsive carrier systems because of their promising potential to realize more specific diagnosis and effective therapy. By judicious utilization of ROS‐responsive functional moieties, a wide range of carrier systems has been designed for ROS‐mediated drug delivery. In this review article, insights into design principle and recent advances on the development of ROS‐responsive carrier systems for drug delivery applications are provided alongside discussion of their in vitro and in vivo evaluation. In particular, the discussions in this article will mainly focus on polymeric nanoparticles, hydrogels, inorganic nanoparticles, and activatable prodrugs that have been integrated with diverse ROS‐responsive moieties for spatiotemporally controlled release of drugs for effective therapy.

Effective anticancer therapy can be achieved by designing a targeted drug-delivery system with high stability during circulation and efficient uptake by the target tumour cancer cells. We report here a novel nano-assembled drug-delivery system, formed by multivalent host–guest interactions between a polymer–cyclodextrin conjugate and a polymer–paclitaxel conjugate. The multivalent inclusion complexes confer high stability to the nano-assembly, which efficiently delivers paclitaxel into the targeted cancer cells via both passive and active targeting mechanisms. The ester linkages between paclitaxel and the polymer backbone permit efficient release of paclitaxel within the cell by degradation. This novel targeted nano-assembly exhibits significant antitumour activity in a mouse tumour model. The strategy established in this study also provides knowledge for the development of advanced anticancer drug delivery.