Nanoassemblies from amphiphilic block copolymers are promising nanomedicine platforms for cancer diagnosis and therapy due to their relatively small size, high loading capacity of drugs, controlled drug release, in vivo stability and prolonged blood circulation. Recent clinical trials with self-assembled polymeric micelles incorporating anticancer drugs have shown improved antitumor activity an...

cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) (CDDP)-loaded polymeric micelles for cancer therapy have been developed to reduce the serious side effects of cisplatin CDDP. Herein, polymeric micelles incorporated with cisplatin are prepared based on the complexation between CDDP and hydrophilic poly (L-glutamic acid)-b-poly (2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PLG-b-PMPC) diblock copolymers. These CDD...

A new experimental method for in vitro release studies of poorly soluble drugs from polymeric micelle systems was developed using a hydrotropic agent, sodium salicylate. It is difficult to maintain a good sink condition for poorly water-soluble drugs, such as paclitaxel (PTX), because of their low aqueous solubility. In this study, a good sink condition for PTX was achieved by using aqueous sod...

Polymeric micelles with core-shell-corona nanoarchitecture were designed for intracellular therapeutic anti-cancer drug carriers. Poly(styrene-b-acrylic acid-b-ethylene glycol) (PS-b-PAA-b-PEG) asymmetric triblock copolymer underwent self-assembly in aqueous solution to form spherical micelles with hydrophobic PS core, anionic PAA shell and hydrophilic PEG corona. The anti-cancer drug (doxorubi...

In order to delineate the location of the tumor both before and during operation, we developed targeted bi-functional polymeric micelles for magnetic resonance (MR) and fluorescence imaging in liver tumors. Hydrophobic superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were loaded into the polymeric micelles through self-assembly of an amphiphilic block copolymer poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(ϵ-c...

Supplementing brain cholesterol is emerging as a potential treatment for Huntington's disease (HD), genetic neurodegenerative disorder characterized, among other abnormalities, by inefficient biosynthesis. However, delivering to the challenging due blood-brain barrier (BBB), which prevents it from reaching striatum, especially, with therapeutically relevant doses. Here we describe distribution,...

We used photo irradiation to design core crosslinked polymeric micelles whose only significant physico-chemical change was in their physico-chemical stability, which helps elucidate poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-related immunogenicity. Synthetic routes and compositions of PEG-b-poly(aspartic acid) block copolymers were optimized with the control of n-alkyl chain length and photo-sensitive chalcon...

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) controls paracellular solute diffusion into the brain microenvironment and is maintained primarily by tight junctions between adjacent microvascular endothelial cells. Studies implicate blood flow-associated shear stress as a pathophysiological mediator of BBB function, although detailed biochemical data are scarce. We hypothesize that shear stress upregulates BBB func...

The past few years have seen many advances in our understanding of the dynamics of polymeric fluids. These include improvements on the successful reptation theory; an emerging molecular theory of semiflexible chain dynamics; and an understanding of how to calculate and classify “phase diagrams” for flow-induced transitions. Experimentalists have begun mapping out the phase behavior of wormlike ...

JK184 can specially inhibit Gli in the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway, which showed great promise for cancer therapeutics. For developing aqueous formulation and improving anti-tumor activity of JK184, we prepared JK184 encapsulated MPEG-PCL micelles by the solid dispersion method without using surfactants or toxic organic solvents. The cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of JK184 micelles were both increa...