Micelle-Based Drug Delivery for Brain Tumors

Abstract Delivering drugs to the brain is a tedious and challenging task. The promising results from delivery of drugs across the blood–brain barrier using nanosized carriers may be one of the best choices in the future in order to achieve better bioavailability in the brain. Polymeric micelles are self-aggregated nanoscale assemblies of amphiphilic copolymers, preferably in the aqueous phase, and have a size of ≤100 nm. Micellization is facilitated by an attractive force between the hydrophobic and neutral parts of copolymers. Copolymers start self-assembling when the concentration reaches the critical micelle concentration, which is a threshold value for micelle formation. These micelles could be used effectively for the encapsulation of drugs that are usually hydrophobic in nature. The choice of selecting different copolymeric structures is enormous and therefore these carriers are versatile and can be tailored accordingly. The pathways followed for the delivery of drugs to the brain are multiple, including paracellular and transcellular, etc. Specific drug delivery to brain tumors could be beneficial in the future using polymeric micelles.