title: Detailed structure of diamond-type lipid cubic nanoparticles.
abstract: Supramolecular three-dimensional self-assembly of nonlamellar lipids with fragments of the protein immunoglobulin results in a bicontinuous cubic phase fragmented into nanoparticles with open water channels (cubosomes). The structure of the diamond-type cubic nanoparticles is characterized experimentally by freeze-fracture electron microscopy, and it is mathematically modeled with nodal surfaces emphasizing the fluid-like undulations of the cubosomic interfaces. Based on scaling-up and scaling-down approaches, we present stable and intermediate-kind nanoparticles resulting from the cubosomic growth. Our results reveal the smallest stable diamond-type cubosomic entity that can serve as a building block of more complex nanostructured fluid drug delivery vehicles of therapeutic proteins. The evidence presented for lipid-bilayer undulations in the surface region of the protein/lipid cubosomes could have important consequences for possible applications of these hierarchically organized porous nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biophysics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev Str. Bl.21, BG-1113 Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Borislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Angelov
authors.forename: Angelina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Angelova
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Papahadjopoulos-Sternberg
authors.forename: Sylviane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lesieur
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Sadoc
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ollivon
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Couvreur
mesh_terms: D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D053758:Nanoparticles
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids