Abstract

Stimuli-sensitive nanocarriers have recently been developed as a powerful tool in biomedical applications such as drug delivery, detection, and gene transfer techniques. Among the external triggers investigated, low intensity magnetic fields represent a non-invasive way to remotely control the release of compounds from a magneto-sensitive carrier. Magnetoliposomes (MLs), i.e., liposomes entrapping magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), are studied due to their capacity to transport hydrophobic and hydrophilic agents, their easy production, and due to the ability of MNPs to respond to a magnetic actuation determining the triggered release of the encapsulated compounds. Here we investigated the design and optimization of the MLs to obtain an efficient on-demand release of the transported compounds, due to the magneto-mechanical actuation induced by applying low-intensity pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs). In particular we studied the effect of the bilayer packing on the ability of MLs, with oleic acid-coated MNPs encapsulated in the bilayer, to respond to PEMFs application. Three kinds of MLs are produced with an increasing rigidity of the bilayer, defined as Liquid Disorder, Liquid Order, and Gel MLs and the delivery of a hydrophilic dye (as a model drug) is investigated. Results demonstrate the efficacy of the magnetic trigger on high-ordered bilayers, which are unable to dampen the perturbation produced by MNPs motion.

Highlights

  • IntroductionSince their discovery [1], liposomes have gained great interest due to their biocompatibility, the possibility to adjust their size and membrane composition and the ability to encapsulate compounds with different chemical properties into their internal core or in their lipid bilayer for drug delivery and gene therapy purposes [2]

  • Egg phosphatidylcholine (Egg-PC) Lipoid 80 E, Hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine from soybean (HSPC) and Phospholipon 90 H were kindly offered by AVG srl (Bollate, MI, Italy)

  • This study allowed the evaluation of the role of the phospholipid packing on the capacity of MLs to respond to the external application of pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMFs) stimulus by means of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) mechanical motion

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Summary

Introduction

Since their discovery [1], liposomes have gained great interest due to their biocompatibility, the possibility to adjust their size and membrane composition and the ability to encapsulate compounds with different chemical properties into their internal core or in their lipid bilayer for drug delivery and gene therapy purposes [2]. Liposomes can be engineered with a wide variety of functional materials to achieve specific purposes. They can be modified to confer stimulus-responsive properties, whereby the encapsulated drug release can be achieved when internal (such as pH, redox and specific enzymes) or external stimuli (temperature, light, magnetic field, electric field or ultra-sound) are present [4,5]

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