Smart Drug Delivery Nano-Carriers from Polypeptide-based Polymersomes

摘要

Block copolymers are a well-known and representative class of macromolecules that have been synthesized in laboratory during the last fifty years. Over the past few years, increasing attention has been given to the supramolecular organization of water-soluble block copolymer surfactants and to their potential use in applications such as coatings, drug delivery systems, nanoparticles or nanoreactors. An important issue towards making these self-assembled systems useful for specific applications is their capability to respond to external stimuli such as temperature and/or pH. Recently, block copolymers comprised of polypeptide segments have been shown to provide significant advantages in controlling both the function and supramolecular structure of bio-inspired self-assemblies. Deming et al. demonstrated the ability of copolypeptides to form stimuli-responsive vesicles by conformation- specific assembly. Nevertheless, most of the polypeptide-based amphiphilic copolymers studied so far were formed by a water-soluble polypeptide segment and a hydrophobic synthetic block (polybutadiene, polyisoprene, poly(ε-caprolactone) or a glycopolymer).