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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

Assembly and Characterization of Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles
Published on: March 2, 2020
Light-sheet microscopy as a tool to understanding the behaviour of Polyion complex micelles for drug delivery
Fan Chen1, Kecheng Li, Gene Hart-Smith
1Centre for Advanced Macromolecular Design (CAMD), School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia. M.Stenzel@unsw.edu.au.
Abstract:
Polyelectrolyte-protein complexes are widely used to deliver therapeutic proteins. Here, we present a method for imaging the release of drugs from polyion complex (PIC) micelles in 3D tumour spheroids using light-sheet microscopy. A negatively charged block copolymer was condensed with a positively charged model drug, hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) by electrostatic interaction. We were able to observe the distribution of polymer and protein within the entire tumour spheroid, showing that the protein was released from the polyelectrolyte complex upon cell internalization at the peripheral cell layer of the spheroid.
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