Poly(ethylene glycol)-polypeptide copolymer micelles for therapeutic agent delivery

Poly(ethylene glycol)-polypeptide (PEG-polypeptide) based polymeric micelles as therapeutic agent carriers have received considerable interest due to their advanced achievements in clinical trials. Polypeptides not only show well-defined secondary structure (alfa-helix and beta-sheet) and good biocompatibility, but can also be functionalized with various groups by direct N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) polymerization or further modification. Additionally, the ionizable side chains enable them to deliver diverse therapeutic agents, such as negative nucleic acid and positive doxorubicin. In this review, we firstly summarized the synthetic methods of amphiphilic copolymers PEG-polypeptide, and emphatically discussed recent progress on their applications as nanocarriers for therapeutic agents from following aspects: PEG-nonionic polypeptide copolymer micelles, PEG-anionic polypeptide micelles, and PEGcationic polypeptide micelles.