Mucopenetrating Zwitterionic Micelles

Abstract

Abstract The intestinal mucus layer remains a challenging biological barrier to cross for nanoformulations. We report the assembly of zwitterionic micelles with 2‐methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine as the zwitterionic entity in the corona‐forming part of the amphiphilic block copolymers. These ca. 200 nm micelles do not have inherent cytotoxicity in Caco‐2 cells for a 24 h incubation time. The time‐resolved crossing of the mucus layer in Caco‐2/HT29‐MTX‐E12 co‐cultures of these spherical micelles with narrow polydispersity is shown.