Researchers in China and Ireland have developed a simple way of building new stimuli-responsive phospholipids that can self-assemble into hollow spheres and trigger the release of anticancer drugs only when inside the cell lysosome.
Liposomes made from synthetic nucleoside phospholipids could benefit drug delivery
Liposomes are nanoscale three-dimensional hollow vesicles with a phospholipid-based outer shell. They are widely used as drug and gene delivery agents and have been approved for various clinical trials. Liposomes are easily internalised by cells and are sealed off from the rest of the cell by the endosome and later in the internalisation process by the lysosome. These compartments specifically isolate foreign objects from the cell and remove them. Controlled release from them can significantly enhance delivery of a therapeutic drug directly within the targeted cell. Since the internal lysosome environment is acidic, pH sensitive liposomes capable of braking up and releasing their cargo have been widely studied. Due to the covalent nature of most of the phospholipids used to prepare liposomes, the latter do not respond promptly to the acidic environment, limiting the fast release of their cargos, and require tedious covalent synthesis procedures. Read the full article in Chemistry World»
You can read the original journal article in Chemical Science – it’s open access and free to download:
Supramolecularly engineered phospholipids constructed by nucleobase molecular recognition: upgraded generation of phospholipids for drug delivery
Dali Wang, Chunlai Tu, Yue Su, Chuan Zhang, Udo Greiser, Xinyuan Zhu, Deyue Yan and Wenxin Wang
Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 3775-3787
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01188D, Edge Article
