TY - JOUR
T1 - Block Liposomes. Vesicles of Charged Lipids with Distinctly Shaped Nanoscale Sphere-, Pear-, Tube-, or Rod-Segments
AU - Zidovska, Alexandra
AU - Ewert, Kai K.
AU - Quispe, Joel
AU - Carragher, Bridget
AU - Potter, Clinton S.
AU - Safinya, Cyrus R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by DOE grant DE-FG02-06ER46314, NSF grant DMR-0803103, and NIH grant GM-59288. Some of this research was conducted at the National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, which is supported by the NIH National Center for Research Resources P41 program (RR17573).
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - We describe the preparation and characterization of block liposomes, a new class of liquid (chain-melted) vesicles, from mixtures of the highly charged (+ 16 e) multivalent cationic lipid MVLBG2 and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC). Block liposomes (BLs) consist of distinct spherical, tubular vesicles, and cylindrical micelles that remain connected, forming a single liposome. This is in contrast to typical liposome systems, where distinctly shaped liposomes are macroscopically separated. In a narrow composition range (8-10 mol% MVLBG2), an abundance of micrometer-scale BLs (typically sphere-tube-sphere triblocks) is observed. Cryo-TEM reveals that BLs are also present at the nanometer scale, where the blocks consist of distinctly shaped nanoscale spheres, pears, tubes, or rods. Pear-tube diblock and pear-tube-pear triblock liposomes contain nanotubes with inner lumen diameter 10-50 nm. In addition, sphere-rod diblock liposomes are present, containing rigid micellar nanorods ≈4 nm in diameter and several μm in length. Block liposomes may find a range of applications in chemical and nucleic acid delivery and as building blocks in the design of templates for hierarchical structures.
AB - We describe the preparation and characterization of block liposomes, a new class of liquid (chain-melted) vesicles, from mixtures of the highly charged (+ 16 e) multivalent cationic lipid MVLBG2 and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC). Block liposomes (BLs) consist of distinct spherical, tubular vesicles, and cylindrical micelles that remain connected, forming a single liposome. This is in contrast to typical liposome systems, where distinctly shaped liposomes are macroscopically separated. In a narrow composition range (8-10 mol% MVLBG2), an abundance of micrometer-scale BLs (typically sphere-tube-sphere triblocks) is observed. Cryo-TEM reveals that BLs are also present at the nanometer scale, where the blocks consist of distinctly shaped nanoscale spheres, pears, tubes, or rods. Pear-tube diblock and pear-tube-pear triblock liposomes contain nanotubes with inner lumen diameter 10-50 nm. In addition, sphere-rod diblock liposomes are present, containing rigid micellar nanorods ≈4 nm in diameter and several μm in length. Block liposomes may find a range of applications in chemical and nucleic acid delivery and as building blocks in the design of templates for hierarchical structures.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0076-6879(09)65006-0
DO - 10.1016/S0076-6879(09)65006-0
M3 - Review article
C2 - 19913164
AN - SCOPUS:71849104066
SN - 0076-6879
VL - 465
SP - 111
EP - 128
JO - Methods in enzymology
JF - Methods in enzymology
IS - C
ER -