Polymersome Macromolecule Delivery across Intact Human Skin

摘要

For any drug or therapeutic molecule to cross skin it must possess specific size, charge, hydro- and lipophilic constraints. Very few do this without the assistance of delivery vehicles, such as the one we report here based on flexible nano-sized polymeric vesicles (otherwise known as polymersomes) formed from high molecular weight, amphiphilic, pH-sensitive block copolymers. Our polymersome formulation exhibits both flexibility and shape deformability that allows them to cross very small pores without fragmenting. Our experiments show that they are able to cross 50 nm sized pores and ex vivo skin without rupturing and that they can efficiently transport high molecular weight dextran across both synthetic and biological barriers.