Polymersome-based protein drug delivery – quo vadis?

Abstract

Block copolymer vesicles are well suited as nano-sized drug delivery vehicles for therapeutic proteins. However, they have not reached the clinic yet. Why? The review discusses opportunities and obstacles of polymersome-based protein drug delivery.

A Perspective of Engineered Lipids and Liposomes: Chemical Design and Functional Application Based on Therapeutic Safety

“…Protein drugs are often limited in their application due to poor spatial structure stability, susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis, rapid clearance in the bloodstream, and limited cell permeability during the delivery process. 98,99 For over a century, the search for suitable materials for protein delivery has been a focus and a challenge within the academic community. 100 Liposomes can effectively load protein drugs and solve the above problems in the process of protein transport.…”

“…Protein drugs are often limited in their application due to poor spatial structure stability, susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis, rapid clearance in the bloodstream, and limited cell permeability during the delivery process. , For over a century, the search for suitable materials for protein delivery has been a focus and a challenge within the academic community . Liposomes can effectively load protein drugs and solve the above problems in the process of protein transport. ,, However, due to poor stability and insufficient permeability in the complex digestive and absorption system of the gastrointestinal tract, oral protein drugs have not been able to achieve clinical application so far. , Researchers developed many engineered lipids/liposomes to solve this problem.…”

Modular Software for Generating and Modelling Diverse Polymer Databases

“…The diverse chemical, mechanical and electronic properties of polymers underlie their application in relevant technological areas spanning structural materials, cosmetics, pharmaceutical formulation, electronics, and biotechnology. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] In order to optimize their aforementioned properties for this range of applications, the role of polymer constitution and topology has been widely explored, with a range of architectures including homopolymers, block copolymers, branched and ring polymers. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] As a result of contemporary research activities, the chemical and structural domains of synthetic polymers are continuously growing.…”

Sub-50 nm core–shell nanoparticles with the pH-responsive squeezing release effect for targeting therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

“…2,3 On the other hand, the clinical application of water-soluble drugs, especially macromolecules, often suffers from many obstacles, such as poor cellular uptake due to their difficulty in crossing lipid-rich hydrophobic cell membranes, low bioavailability and short half-life in the circulatory system due to their poor stability to proteolytic and hydrolytic degradation. 4,5 Additionally, no matter for hydrophobic or hydrophilic anticancer drugs, their severe toxic side effects at therapeutic doses are the biggest hurdle for pharmaceutical researchers. Aiming at the above problems, nanocarriers, including NPs, miniemulsions, liposomes, and micelles, play an increasingly important role in the development of tumor therapies, and about 20 nanocarriers are being currently marketed.…”