Polymer encapsulation of anticancer silver-N-heterocyclic carbene complexes.

Amphiphilic block copolymers have been developed for the encapsulation of organometallic drugs. silver-N-heterocyclic carbene complexes have shown significant promise as anticancer and antibacterial compounds, and have been studied as the payload in these carriers. Simple modification of the N-heterocyclic carbene ligand structure enables solubility properties and interaction with the polymer to be tuned.