Polymeric Micelle Characterization and Stability for Drug Delivery Systems

The current methods of drug delivery prove to have inefficiencies as far as drug administration to the target site. Due to adverse factors that the drug faces within the body, it can be broken down before the therapeutic can be applied. Polymeric micelles have shown promising results in the face of these circumstances, by being able to self-assemble into a core-shell structure to better house the medicine as it travels through blood stream upon intravenous injection. The triblock copolymer, PEG-PPG-PEG, uses it hydrophilic and hydrophobic components to form a spherical micelle at a nanoscale size allowing it cross barriers with greater ease and prolong dissociation. The resulting size of the micelle is measured by the use of a dynamic light scattering machine. Stability factors, such as, thermodynamic and kinetic stability, also aid in the formation of micelles, but are generally effected in drug delivery process by factors such as salt concentration and pH. Both these factors can cause a lack of stability resulting in aggregation of the micelles; therefore, their affects need to be prolonged in order to have sufficient drug delivery.