Premium
Polymeric Micelles with Tunable Channels
Author(s) -
Ma Rujiang,
Shi Linqi
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.201000171
Subject(s) - micelle , polymer , chemistry , degradation (telecommunications) , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , materials science , organic chemistry , computer science , engineering , telecommunications , aqueous solution
This article describes a novel type of polymeric micelles with tunable channels (PMTC), which are usually composed of a common core and a mixed shell of two different kinds of polymer chains with at least one of them being stimuli‐responsive. Phase separation of the mixed shell upon stimuli results in channels between the micelle core and the outer milieu for controlling mass exchange. Channel‐modulated drug release and catalysis based on PMTC are discussed. The PMTC have peculiar merits including facile manipulation of drug release rate and catalytic velocity, remarkable restraint of burst drug release, and efficient prevention of degradation of the micelle core due to their unique structure. Finally, prospects and challenges of PMTC are reviewed.