LIPOSOME WITH NANO GOLD PARTICLES

Baylor College Of Medicine, Houston TX

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Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. Liposomal drug carriers have been used to package drugs in order to alter their biodistribution and pharmacokinetics, but their clinical application are limited by slow release. Liposomes have also been developed for active deployment based on heating via global (relative to the size of the liposome) tissue heating. While it appears that these techniques can improve the localization of the drug, the lingering problem of liposome instability at body temperature remains. Fully polymerized drug carriers have also been used for similar purposes to carry imaging agents, while they tend to have the opposite problem, that is, they are not easily opened at any temperature achievable in an aqueous medium. In this study, we mixed polymerizable lipid with unpolymerizable lipid to yield a partially polymerized liposomes (PPLs) and gold nanoparticles were attached on the surface of the PPLs through Au-SH-lipid linkage. By optimizing the ratio of the two types of lipids, we prepared gold particle attached PPLs which were stable at physiological condition, and could be opened by laser activation to release drug.