Filomicelles in nanomedicine – from flexible, fragmentable, and ligand-targetable drug carrier designs to combination therapy for brain tumors

Potato virus X, a filamentous plant viral nanoparticle for doxorubicin delivery in cancer therapy

“…Filomicelles are assembled from block copolymers such as polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) resulting in a worm-like micelles, but these are typically on the micron size scale. 15,16 Carbon nanotubes have great control in size and shape but are not biocompatible as they accumulate in the lungs and persist in the body over prolonged time periods. 17, 18 While highly sophisticated, challenges remain to manufacture PRINT nanoparticles with dimensions below 50 nm.…”

Nanocarriers for spleen targeting: anatomo-physiological considerations, formulation strategies and therapeutic potential

“…Gold nanorods have also been used in the treatment of malignant tumors [67]. Filamentous micelles have shown better therapeutic effect against solid tumor and high drug loading of anticancer agents [68,69]. Furthermore, worm-like micelles also revealed higher concentration of drugs within the cells as compared to spherical micelles, vesicles, and free drug [70].…”

Controlling the morphology of copolymeric vectors for next generation nanomedicine

“…Moreover, filomicelles have been used to increase the maximum tolerated dose of the chemotherapeutic paclitaxel and enhance tumour penetration as a consequence of their flexibility and form [87]. Implementation of such NVs in combination with radiotherapy has also been shown to enhance therapeutic efficacy, which means that such systems can be used alongside existing treatments to improve success [20]. With this in mind, the degree to which morphology impacts biodistribution is of significant interest.…”

“…Utilising changes in the structure of BCPs, and the conditions in which they are assembled, it is possible to controllably direct the formation of spherical or worm-like micelles, vesicles and assorted compound structures [25,60] where fine control of the balance between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic components is of critical importance. Worm-like micellar NVs, so-called 'filomicelles' named by analogy with filoviruses, are composed of PEG-polylactide copolymers that are assembled through dissolution in organic solvent and subsequent dispersion in an aqueous solution with evaporation of the volatile organics yielding the desired NVs [20,61]. Stabilization of therapeutic drugs in the hydrophobic membrane can be easily realized utilizing this methodology and surface characteristics such as functionality and the length of the PEG corona can easily be varied in order to influence the biological performance of the NV.…”

“…Top-down nanofabrication techniques have for example been utilised for particle replication in non-wetting templates (PRINT), which yields polymeric NPs that demonstrate an assortment of morphological characteristics and are easily modified to vary the surface chemistry [19]. Bottom-up engineering of BCP NPs include the self-assembly of amphiphiles into filamentous micelles, which mimic the elongated form of biological structures such as filoviruses [20]. Although having a spherical shape, a lot of attention has been given to the structural characteristics and biofunctionality of BCP vesicles or 'polymersomes' due to their ability to encapsulate hydrophilic and/or hydrophobic cargo within a polymeric membrane that can be tuned for permeability, degradability, stimuli-responsiveness and so-called stealth properties [21][22][23].…”