Polymerization induced self-assembly: an opportunity toward the self-assembly of polysaccharide-containing copolymers into high-order morphologies

Abstract

Glyco-nanostructures, nano-objects obtained from the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers containing natural polysaccharides called glycopolymers, are promising nanocarriers that have attracted great attention for many decades owing to their interesting biodegradability and biocompatibility. However, the conventional self-assembly processes used currently lead to the production of primitive assemblies. This mini-review focuses on the recent efforts in the self-assembly of amphiphilic glycopolymers and highlights the advantages of Polymerization Induced Self-Assembly (PISA) to offer them a new breakthrough in biomedical applications, as their synthetic copolymer counterparts.