Abstract
Drug targeting is currently a great challenge in biomedical research. Many strategies have been undertaken toward this goal utilizing various types of vehicle systems. For a promising candidate as an ideal drug carrier, we have prepared AB block copolymer micelles. Amphiphilic block copolymers in aqueous milieu form micellar structures through the association of hydrophobic segments. These micelles have several advantageous features as drug carrier systems due to their considerable thermodynamic stability as well as to the formation of a hydrophobic core separated from the outer aqueous milieu by the corona of hydrophilic segments. The core acts as the micrccontainer of drugs, which can be introduced into the core either through chemical linkage to core-forming segment or by a simple physical entrapment. This review presents a concept and strategy for using a block copolymer micelle as a nanometric virus-mimicking carrier of anti-cancer drugs to treat solid tumors. Further, formation of novel micelles system (polyion complex micelle) from a pair of oppositely charged block copolymers with poly(ethylene glycol) segment was described as a novel carrier for peptides and nucleotides.
