Polymersomes in Nanomedicine - A Review

BACKGROUND: The worldwide medicine research is dedicated towards improvement of patients’ health and diseased state. The use of nanotechnology is an upcoming area which is at present, is highly focused in the filed of medicine. Continuous studies in the area have given rise to the development of a novel field called “nanomedicine” which mainly aims to open new perspective of treatments and increasing therapeutic efficacy of existing therapies. METHODS: We searched Google, PubMed portals for the literature survey of the following subjects so as to get latest updated information pertaining to latest developments in the field of polymerosomes in nanomedicine. RESULTS: In most of the recent past studies, nanomedicine has gain attention all over the world and has lead to development of new approaches for medical treatments. Some of these approaches involved solubilization, targeting of cancer medicine or application as a diagnostic tool. Polymersomes, which are artificial amphiphilic vesicles, made up of different chemical polymers, are currently being investigated for delivering various probes for imaging target tissues/ organs and cytotoxic drugs to tumor cells and also for gene therapy. In the present review, we discuss the current views on polymerosomes and their medical applications, a prominent emerging area in the field of nanomedicine. CONCLUSIONS: Advances in nanomedicine have led to the development of nano-sized polymersomes as vehicles for different medical applications.