Premium
Lipid Switches: Stimuli‐Responsive Liposomes through Conformational Isomerism Driven by Molecular Recognition
Author(s) -
Lou Jinchao,
Zhang Xiaoyu,
Best Michael D.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201803389
Subject(s) - liposome , drug delivery , rational design , nanotechnology , biophysics , chemistry , exploit , molecular recognition , computer science , lipid vesicle , lipid bilayer , molecule , membrane , materials science , biochemistry , biology , organic chemistry , computer security
Abstract Advancements in the field of liposomal drug carriers have culminated in greatly improved delivery properties. An important aspect of this work entails development of designer liposomes for release of contents triggered by environmental changes. The majority of these systems are driven by chemical reactions in the presence of different stimuli. However, a promising new paradigm instead focuses on molecular recognition events as the impetus for content release. In certain cases, these platforms exploit synthetic lipid switches designed to undergo conformational changes upon binding to target ions or molecules that perturb membrane assembly, thereby triggering cargo release. Examples of this approach reported thus far showcase how rational design of lipid switches can result in dramatic changes in lipid assembly properties. These strategies show great promise for opening up new pathophysiological stimuli that can be harnessed for programmed content release in drug delivery applications.