title: Polymeric micelles with stimuli-triggering systems for advanced cancer drug targeting.
abstract: Since the 1990s, nanoscale drug carriers have played a pivotal role in cancer chemotherapy, acting through passive drug delivery mechanisms and subsequent pharmaceutical action at tumor tissues with reduction of adverse effects. Polymeric micelles, as supramolecular assemblies of amphiphilic polymers, have been considerably developed as promising drug carrier candidates, and a number of clinical studies of anticancer drug-loaded polymeric micelle carriers for cancer chemotherapy applications are now in progress. However, these systems still face several issues; at present, the simultaneous control of target-selective delivery and release of incorporated drugs remains difficult. To resolve these points, the introduction of stimuli-responsive mechanisms to drug carrier systems is believed to be a promising approach to provide better solutions for future tumor drug targeting strategies. As possible trigger signals, biological acidic pH, light, heating/cooling and ultrasound actively play significant roles in signal-triggering drug release and carrier interaction with target cells. This review article summarizes several molecular designs for stimuli-responsive polymeric micelles in response to variation of pH, light and temperature and discusses their potentials as next-generation tumor drug targeting systems.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University (TWIns) , Kawada-Cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo , Japan.
authors.forename: Masamichi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Akimoto
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000737:chemistry; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D065546:Drug Liberation; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008027:Light; D008823:Micelles; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004337:Drug Carriers; D008823:Micelles; D011108:Polymers
keywords: Cancer targeting; copolymer; drug targeting; nanoparticles