Enzyme mediated production of asymmetrically charged liposomes.

Abstract

In asymmetric liposomes, the inner and outer leaflets of the lipid bilayer have different compositions. As such, these liposomes are appealing platforms for modeling and studying membrane asymmetry in biological membranes. In addition, asymmetric liposomes can serve as innovative drug delivery vehicles in which, the inner leaflet can be designed for maximal cargo encapsulation while the outer leaflet can be optimized for minimal toxicity. This study aims to explore the use of a membrane-active enzyme, phospholipase D (PLD), to produce liposomes with asymmetrically-charged membranes. PLD is an interfacial enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine (PC) lipids to produce choline and negatively-charged phosphatidic acid (PA) lipids. For this work, we introduced PLD to pre-formed PC liposomes and monitored the zeta potential of these liposomes at different time points. Zeta potential of these liposomes showed a time-dependent drop, presumably due to PLD activity and production of negatively-charged PA lipids in the membrane. Using a calibration curve, the zeta potential values were converted to the amount of PA formed in the outer leaflet of liposomes. Notably, the use of heat-deactivated PLD enzyme did not have an impact on liposomal zeta values. In addition, the results of a choline assay that was used to quantify the produced choline and thus PA in the system were comparable to those from zeta measurements. Furthermore, performing these studies with different PLD concentrations showed that the rate of PA production varied with the concentration of enzyme. Lastly, experiments of dye leakage from liposomes suggested that this enzymatic activity did not have a significant impact on liposomal membrane integrity. Together, these findings indicate that PLD enzymatic activity can be utilized to generate liposomes with asymmetrically charged leaflets, providing exciting opportunities for membrane biophysical studies as well as drug delivery applications.