Meng Fenghua, Zhong Zhiyuan, Feijen Jan
Biomedical Polymers Laboratory, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, People's Republic of China.
Biomacromolecules. 2009 Feb 9;10(2):197-209. doi: 10.1021/bm801127d.
In the past decade, polymersomes (also referred to as polymeric vesicles) have attracted rapidly growing interest based on their intriguing aggregation phenomena, cell and virus-mimicking dimensions and functions, as well as tremendous potential applications in medicine, pharmacy, and biotechnology. Unlike liposomes self-assembled from low molecular weight lipids, polymersomes are in general prepared from macromolecular amphiphiles of various architectures including amphiphilic diblock, triblock, graft and dendritic copolymers. Polymersomes exhibit very unique features highlighted with high stability, tunable membrane properties, versatility, and capacity of transporting hydrophilic as well as hydrophobic species such as anticancer drugs, genes, proteins, and diagnostic probes. Recently, much effort has been directed to the development of intelligent polymersomes that respond to internal or external stimuli, in particular, pH, temperature, redox potential, light, magnetic field, and ultrasound, either reversibly or nonreversibly. Stimuli-sensitive polymersomes have emerged as novel programmable delivery systems in which the release of the encapsulated contents can be readily modulated by the stimulus. The stimuli-responsive release may result in significantly enhanced therapeutic efficacy and minimized possible side effects. It is also feasible to form and disassemble polymersomes in water simply by applying an appropriate stimulus. In this article, recent advances in stimuli-sensitive polymersomes have been reviewed, and perspectives on future developments have been discussed.
在过去十年中，聚合物囊泡（也称为聚合物脂质体）因其有趣的聚集现象、模拟细胞和病毒的尺寸及功能，以及在医学、药学和生物技术领域的巨大潜在应用而迅速引起了越来越多的关注。与由低分子量脂质自组装形成的脂质体不同，聚合物囊泡通常由各种结构的大分子两亲物制备而成，包括两亲性二嵌段、三嵌段、接枝和树枝状共聚物。聚合物囊泡具有非常独特的特性，如高稳定性、可调节的膜性质、多功能性以及运输亲水性和疏水性物质（如抗癌药物、基因、蛋白质和诊断探针）的能力。最近，人们致力于开发对内部或外部刺激（特别是pH值、温度、氧化还原电位、光、磁场和超声波）有可逆或不可逆响应的智能聚合物囊泡。刺激敏感型聚合物囊泡已成为新型的可编程递送系统，其中包封内容物的释放可以通过刺激轻易调节。刺激响应性释放可能会显著提高治疗效果并将可能的副作用降至最低。仅通过施加适当的刺激在水中形成和拆解聚合物囊泡也是可行的。在本文中，对刺激敏感型聚合物囊泡的最新进展进行了综述，并讨论了未来发展的前景。
