Hybrid, Nanoscale Phospholipid/Block Copolymer Vesicles

Polymers

Seng Koon Lim¹  Hans-Peter de Hoog¹  Atul N. Parikh¹   Madhavan Nallani¹ 

[1] Centre for Biomimetic Sensor Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Drive, 637553, Singapore; E-Mails:

关键词: polymersomes;    hybrid vesicles;    self-assembly;    drug-delivery;    soft matter;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym5031102

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Hybrid phospholipid/block copolymer vesicles, in which the polymeric membrane is blended with phospholipids, display interesting self-assembly behavior, incorporating the robustness and chemical versatility of polymersomes with the softness and biocompatibility of liposomes. Such structures can be conveniently characterized by preparing giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) via electroformation. Here, we are interested in exploring the self-assembly and properties of the analogous nanoscale hybrid vesicles (ca. 100 nm in diameter) of the same composition prepared by film-hydration and extrusion. We show that the self-assembly and content-release behavior of nanoscale polybutadiene-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PB-PEO)/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC) hybrid phospholipid/block copolymer vesicles can be tuned by the mixing ratio of the amphiphiles. In brief, these hybrids may provide alternative tools for drug delivery purposes and molecular imaging/sensing applications and clearly open up new avenues for further investigation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.