Polymersomes: A New Vehicle For Gene Delivery?
Polymersomes are a class of synthetic vesicles formed from the self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers. These polymeric vesicles are hollow spheres with a hydrophobic bilayer membrane and hydrophilic internal and external coronas with size ranging from 50 nm to 5 µm or more (first image). Polymersomes have gained a lot of interest because unlike polymeric micelles they have the ability to deliver both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs (second image). In this study, novel methods of fabricating polymersomes using water in water emulsions will be investigated.
Figure: first) Polymersomes picture, second) Schemicatic representation of a polymersome, based on an amphiphilic diblock copolymers.
(Source: polymersomes)
