ABSTRACT
Polymeric micelles (PM) are a promising nanomedicine platform for drug and nucleic acid delivery. In aqueous solution, PM are formed via the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers into nanoscopic core/shell architectures presenting a hydrophobic core surrounded by a hydrophilic corona. This chapter provides an overview of the critical features of both PM and Polyion complex micelles (PICM) as delivery systems and discusses the recent advances in their preparation, characterization and pharmaceutical evaluation. The versatile attributes of PM and PICM make these systems an attractive nanomedicine platform for the delivery of various therapeutic agents via both parenteral and oral routes. The same methods used to determine the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of amphiphilic PM can in theory serve to evaluate the CMC of PICM. The stability of PICM towards dissociation can be assessed by displacement assays in which the micelles are incubated with macromolecular polyions of identical charge to the loaded drug.
