Polymer-based therapeutics is a precipitously-growing Research, Developmentand Innovation (R&D&I) translational field of bioengineering for biomedicine. The last decade has witnessed an exponential rise in interest from Dentistry, in general and Oral Oncology (extending to cranio-maxillo-facial), in particular. Basically, the area comprises the design, development, characterization, evaluation and fine-tuning (refinement) of polymer-drug and polymer-protein conjugates, macromolecular drug delivery systems, and polymeric micelles that incorporate covalently-bound drugs, bioactive agents and polyplexes for controlled pharmaceutic and DNA delivery. Accordingly, tackling drug delivery-related issues, including mode-of-administration, encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, release pharmaco-kinetics, bio-safety and -efficacy became key in nanomedicine and nanoDentistry of today and tomorrow. Herein, nano-sized drug delivery vehicles and carriers can represent a cornerstone in the ongoing efforts for controlled drug development, formulation, optimization and translation from bench-top to chair-side; to the clinic and our patients. Indeed, the self-assembly of amphiphilic polymers, or aggregation colloids (in solution), commonly referred to as polymeric micelles, continue to represent an invaluably desirable and pursued small-scale, easy-to formulate, -characterize and -sterilize tool in pharmaceutical innovation, mainly, in overcoming critical issues in drug delivery, including low water solubility in biological fluids and poor drug permeability across biological barriers.
Yet, challenges, related to post-administration stability and behavior (pre-clinical and clinical) for example, continue to drive the present R&D&I efforts across the World. Dentistry and Oro-Dental Health Care including Oral and Cranio-Maxillo-Facial (Surgery and) Oncology are no exception. Therefore, in this special review, a concise presentation and discussion of the past, present and future of polymer-based micelles and nano-micelles, including characterization parameters, methods of preparation, drug(s) loading/delivery and challenges, is presented, via integrating illustrations of pertinent a range of uses and applications, in an attempt to bridge the gap between biomaterial engineering, pharmaceutics, nano-biotechnology, innovative clinical translation and the curious junior/senior investigator.
dentistry; biofilm; oral cancer; chemotherapy; drug delivery; dental caries; tooth-binding; micelle; nanomaterials; polymer; oncology