Recent Progress of Crosslinking Strategies for Polymeric Micelles with Enhanced Drug Delivery in Cancer Therapy.

The drug delivery by versatile types of self-assembled micelles for tumor treatment, which improved the diagnostic and therapeutic effectiveness, is advocated. However, despite the numerous advantages, applications of most micelle system have been retarded by low in vivo bio-stability which led to premature drug release and nonspecific tissue accumulation. To date, a range of chemistries has been introduced in intermolecular non-covalent/covalent crosslinking strategies for these dynamic nanostructures to produce robust functional nanoparticles with enhanced circulation stability and lower non-targeted organ toxicity. In this review, we focused on recent developments in crosslinking polymeric nanoparticles in cancer therapy. Types of chemistries used in the crosslinking strategies of the micelles are outlined and their enhanced drug delivery abilities are discussed.