Under the supervision of the Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Associate Professor Dr. Sarmed H. Kathum Alkhateeb, the Scientific Affairs Unit at the University of Baghdad/College of Pharmacy, held an in-person scientific seminar entitled “Nanomicelle: Promising Nanostructured System for Improved Pharmaceutical Performance,” delivered by Pharmacist Halah Talal Sulaiman, the PhD student at the Pharmaceutics Department. The seminar aimed to identify nanomaterials prepared using different designs, their distinctive properties, and the basic principles that provide safe and effective continuous drug delivery as a new nanosystem for the delivery of the drug. The seminar included several topics, including how nanomicelles have shown their potential as nanocarriers for drug delivery owing to their small size, good biocompatibility, and capacity to effectively entrap lipophilic drugs in their core. Nanomicelles are formed via self-assembly in aqueous media of amphiphilic molecules into well-organized supramolecular structures. Molecular weights and the structure of the core and corona-forming blocks are important properties that will determine the size of nanomicelles and their shape. Selective delivery is achieved via the novel design of various stimuli-responsive nanomicelles that release drugs based on endogenous or exogenous stimulations such as pH, temperature, ultrasound, light, redox potential, and others. Nanomicellar drugs are observed to overcome drug resistance by increasing drug accessibility and drug sensitivity through high local drug concentrations achieved at tumor sites through the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect.
