Lai Wing-Fu
School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025 May 28;17(21):30423-30435. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5c04658. Epub 2025 May 15.
Polymersomes are nanostructures consisting of a hollow aqueous compartment enclosed by a coating of amphiphilic block copolymers. Owing to the entangled nature of their membrane, polymersomes exhibit higher mechanical stability than some other extensively studied nanostructures such as liposomes. This also enables the properties of the polymersome membrane to be more easily tuned to meet practical needs, making polymersomes promising carriers for drug delivery. Since the turn of the last century, the use of polymersomes has been exploited in diverse areas, ranging from protein therapy to medical imaging. Yet, discussions exploring the opportunities and challenges of the development of polymersomes for oral drug administration have been scant. This review addresses this gap by offering a snapshot of the current advances in the design, fabrication, and use of polymersomes as oral drug carriers. It is hoped that this review will not only highlight the practical potential of polymersomes for oral drug administration but will also shed light on the challenges determining the wider clinical potential of polymersomes in the forthcoming decades.
聚合物囊泡是一种纳米结构，由一个被两亲性嵌段共聚物涂层包围的中空水相隔室组成。由于其膜的缠结性质，聚合物囊泡比其他一些广泛研究的纳米结构（如脂质体）表现出更高的机械稳定性。这也使得聚合物囊泡膜的性质更容易调节以满足实际需求，使聚合物囊泡成为有前景的药物递送载体。自上世纪之交以来，聚合物囊泡的应用已拓展到从蛋白质治疗到医学成像等不同领域。然而，探讨聚合物囊泡用于口服给药开发的机遇和挑战的讨论却很少。本综述通过概述聚合物囊泡作为口服药物载体在设计、制备和应用方面的当前进展来填补这一空白。希望本综述不仅能突出聚合物囊泡用于口服给药的实际潜力，还能阐明在未来几十年决定聚合物囊泡更广泛临床潜力的挑战。
