Cisplatin is one of the most widely used agents in the treatment of solid tumors, but its clinical utility is limited by toxicity. The development of less toxic, liposomal formulations of cisplatin has been hampered by the low water solubility and low lipophilicity of cisplatin, resulting in very low encapsulation efficiencies. We describe a novel method allowing the efficient encapsulation of cisplatin in a lipid formulation; it is based on repeated freezing and thawing of a concentrated solution of cisplatin in the presence of negatively charged phospholipids. The method is unique in that it generates nanocapsules, which are small aggregates of cisplatin covered by a single lipid bilayer. The nanocapsules have an unprecedented drug-to-lipid ratio and an in vitro cytotoxicity up to 1000-fold higher than the free drug. Analysis of the mechanism of nanocapsule formation suggests that the method may be generalized to other drugs showing low water solubility and lipophilicity.The clinical use of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) and many of its analogs faces three major problems: 1) serious dose-limiting toxicities in particular nephrotoxicity and neurotoxicity; 2) rapid inactivation of the drug as a result of complexation to plasma and tissue proteins; and 3) the frequent occurrence of platinum resistance [1][2][3][4][5] . In general, these problems can be reduced by shielding of a drug from the extracellular environment by means of a lipid coating. However, in many cases this approach fails because of inefficient encapsulation of the drug in lipid formulations resulting in low drug uptake by the tumor 6 . This is particularly true for cisplatin: the low water solubility and low lipophilicity of cisplatin result in lipid formulations with a very low drug-to-lipid ratio 7-9 . One approach is to synthesize lipophilic derivatives of cisplatin that can be efficiently encapsulated in large multilamellar liposomes 10 . Here, we describe a new method to efficiently encapsulate native, non-derivitized cisplatin in a lipid formulation. Nanocapsules of cisplatinOur method involves hydration of a dry lipid film composed of equimolar amounts of dioleoyl-phosphatidylserine (PS) and dioleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (PC), with a buffered solution (pH 7.4) of 5 mM cisplatin followed by 10 freeze-thaw (FT) cycles, and removal of free (extravesicular) cisplatin by centrifugation. The cisplatincontaining lipid suspension (cisPt-PS/PC) was extremely cytotoxic (Fig. 1a) with a typical IC 50 (the drug concentration at which cell growth is inhibited by 50%) of approximately 2 nM as compared with 0.5 µM for the free drug (conventional cisplatin). A lipid suspension not loaded with cisplatin (blank) was not cytotoxic, and mixing conventional cisplatin with the blank lipid suspension did not increase the cytotoxicity of cisplatin.Omitting the freeze-thaw step, or leaving out the negatively charged PS in the lipid mixture, resulted in a dramatic decrease in cytotoxicity (Fig. 1b). This decrease in cytotoxicity was paralleled by a sim...

The kinetics of passive transport of the anticancer drug doxorubicin were analyzed in relation to membrane composition in large unilamellar vesicles in which DNA was enclosed. Special attention was paid to lipids that are typical for the inner and outer leaflet of the plasma membrane of mammalian cells: Phosphatidylethanolamine and anionic phosphatidylserine versus phosphatidylcholine, sphingomyelin, and cholesterol, respectively. The presence of anionic phospholipids results in a highly efficient incorporation of the drug into biological and model membranes [de Wolf, F. A., et al. (1993) Biochemistry 32, 6688-6695]. Therefore, the effect of drug binding on the amount of free, transportable drug was explicitly taken into account. However, even after correction for binding the permeability coefficient was about 35% lower in membranes containing 50 mol % of the anionic phosphatidylserine than in membranes consisting only of zwitterionic phospholipids (0.71-0.79 versus 1.18-1.25 microns s-1). This shows that drug binding and insertion also affect the intrinsic transport characteristics of the membranes. As compared to pure phosphatidylcholine, binding was not influenced by the incorporation of sphingomyelin or cholesterol, but equimolar amounts of sphingomyelin and cholesterol in phosphatidylcholine membranes decreased the rate of doxorubicin transport by 60% and 80%, respectively. The inhibitory effect of these two lipids is probably due to a closer packing of the membranes. In accordance, after the acyl chain order was decreased by adding the anaesthetic-like phenethyl alcohol (0.5% v/v), transport was stimulated more than 4-fold. The implications of our findings for the functioning and rate of drug pumping by the multidrug resistance-conferring P-glycoprotein in cancer cells are discussed.

Upon incubation of the anticancer drug cisplatin [cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II)] with model membranes composed of phosphatidylserine (PS), a stable product is formed that has been isolated after chloroform/methanol extraction of the sample. The product formation is specific for PS and does not occur with other major membrane phospholipids. The rate and extent of product formation is dependent on the pH, chloride ion concentration, and temperature, with the highest rate at pH 6.0, in the absence of Cl- and at 37 degrees C, indicating that positively charged aquated cisplatin is the reactive species. Over 80% of PS is converted within 15 h under these conditions with a halftime of 5 h. PS can be regenerated by an excess of glutathione. Mass spectrometry experiments demonstrate that interaction of cisplatin with PS involves a loss of two chloride ions and coordination of platinum to the amine and carboxyl group of the serine moiety. Cisplatin forms complexes specifically with PS not only in model membranes but also in the plasma membrane of human erythrocytes. Since PS is essential in several cellular processes, its interaction with cisplatin may have important physiological implications.

Dilution of a fatty acid micellar solution at basic pH toward neutrality results in spontaneous formation of vesicles with a broad size distribution. However, when vesicles of a defined size are present before dilution, the size distribution of the newly formed vesicles is strongly biased toward that of the seed vesicles. This so-called matrix effect is believed to be a key feature of early life. Here we reproduced this effect for oleate micelles and seed vesicles of either oleate or dioleoylphosphatidylcholine. Fluorescence measurements showed that the vesicle contents do not leak out during the replication process. We hypothesized that the matrix effect results from vesicle fission induced by an imbalance of material across both leaflets of the vesicle upon initial insertion of fatty acids into the outer leaflet of the seed vesicle. This was supported by experiments that showed a significant increase in vesicle size when the equilibration of oleate over both leaflets was enhanced by either slowing down the rate of fatty acid addition or increasing the rate of fatty acid transbilayer movement. Coarse-grained molecular-dynamics simulations showed excellent agreement with the experimental results and provided further mechanistic details of the replication process.

The interaction of the anti-cancer drug cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisPt) with model membranes was studied, with emphasis on the cisPt and phospholipid species involved. Binding studies using large unilamellar vesicles have revealed that: (i) Interaction involved negatively charged phospholipids only, and (ii) Interaction with negatively charged phospholipids was observed only in buffers with low Cl- concentration, indicating that aquated, positively charged cisPt is involved. Binding to all negatively charged phospholipids tested was highest at pH 6.0. At pH 7.4 a high and specific binding was observed with phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylserine. The consequences of cisPt binding on the organization of lipids was investigated with differential scanning calorimetry studies. These studies have indicated a higher ordering of dispersions of negatively charged phospholipids in the presence of divalent cationic cisPt. Summarizing, the interaction of positively charged cisPt species with negatively charged phospholipids is significant and should be considered in in vivo experiments.