Generation of geometrically ordered lipid-based liquid-crystalline nanoparticles using biologically relevant enzymatic processing.
High-symmetry lipid nanoparticles with internal bicontinuous cubic phase structure (cubosomes) are prepared from a simple emulsion containing a mixture of a nondigestible lipid (phytantriol) and a digestible short-chained triglyceride using enzymatic lipolysis of the incorporated short-chained triglyceride. The lipolytic products partition away from the nondigestible lipid, resulting in crystallization of the cubic-phase internal structure. Time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering revealed the kinetics of the disorder-to-order transition, with cryo-transmission electron microscopy showing an absence of liposomes. The new approach offers a new "sideways" method for the generation of lipid-based nanostructured materials that avoids the problems of top-down and bottom-up approaches.
Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University , 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
Wye Khay
WK
Fong
Stefan
S
Salentinig
Clive A
CA
Prestidge
Raffaele
R
Mezzenga
Adrian
A
Hawley
Ben J
BJ
Boyd
D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005233:Fatty Alcohols / Q000737:chemistry; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*
D004798:Enzymes; D005233:Fatty Alcohols; C508873:3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-1,2,3-hexadecanetriol