Polymeric micelles as nanocarriers for drug delivery

Abstract

Polymeric micelles are built from amphiphilic polymers through self-assembly effects. Due to their unique core shell structure, small size and modifiable surface, polymeric micelles have been widely investigated as nanoscale drug delivery carriers. Such systems may increase drug solubility and have possible applications in tumour targeting and gene therapy. These biomedical applications require that polymeric micelles are biocompatible, have prolonged blood circulation and possess high drug-loading efficiency. In addition, tumour targeting and smart drug release behaviour need special modification towards micelles with multiplicate functional substances. This review focuses on the present progress of polymeric micelles and highlights some critical issues for their application in drug delivery systems. Composition and micellisation procedures are also briefly discussed.

Keywords::

• drug delivery
• drug solubilisation
• gene delivery
• micelle
• tumour targeting

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully thank Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation (No. R204233) and Zhejiang Excellent Researcher Foundation (No. 2006R10007).

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