Industrial Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Zografou, Greece.
Laboratory of Dyeing, Finishing, Dyestuffs and Advanced Polymers, University of West Attica, DIDPE, Athens, Greece.
Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2207:139-150. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0920-0_11.
Recently, the explosion of progress of materials at the nanoscale level has paved the way for a new category of healthcare technologies termed nanomedicine. Nanomedicine involves materials at the nanometer level for products that can improve the currently used technologies for biomedical applications. While traditional therapeutics have allowed for limited control of their distribution in the body and clearing times, engineering at the nanoscale level has allowed for significant advances in biocompatibility, biodistribution, and pharmacokinetics. Among all materials, polymers have dominated the nanomedicine world, due to their ability to manipulate their properties by combining different materials in a wide variety of macromolecular architectures. The development of novel polymeric materials is guided by the goal of improving patient survival and quality of life by increasing the bioavailability of drug to the site of disease, targeting delivery to the pathological tissues, increasing drug solubility, and minimizing systemic side effects. Polymersomes (vesicles) are the only type of polymeric nanocarriers that can physically encapsulate at the same nanoparticle hydrophilic drugs in their aqueous interior and/or hydrophobic agents within their lamellar membranes. Polymersomes have been shown to possess superior biomaterial properties compared to liposomes, including greater stability and storage capabilities, as well as prolonged circulation time.
最近，纳米级材料的进步爆炸式增长为一类新的医疗保健技术铺平了道路，称为纳米医学。纳米医学涉及纳米级材料的产品，可以改进目前用于生物医学应用的技术。虽然传统疗法允许对其在体内的分布和清除时间进行有限的控制，但纳米级工程已经允许在生物相容性、生物分布和药代动力学方面取得重大进展。在所有材料中，聚合物由于能够通过将不同材料组合在各种高分子结构中来操纵其性质，因此主导了纳米医学领域。新型聚合物材料的开发以提高药物在疾病部位的生物利用度、靶向递送至病变组织、增加药物溶解度和最小化全身副作用为目标，从而提高患者的生存率和生活质量。聚合物囊泡（囊泡）是唯一能够在同一纳米颗粒的亲水性药物在其水相内部和/或疏水性药物在其层状膜内物理包裹的聚合物纳米载体。与脂质体相比，聚合物囊泡具有更好的生物材料特性，包括更高的稳定性和储存能力，以及更长的循环时间。
