Nanoparticles from Lipid-Based Liquid Crystals: Emulsifier Influence on Morphology and Cytotoxicity

Abstract

Here, monoolein-based nanoparticles (NPs), obtained through fragmentation of bulk liquid crystalline phases, and stabilized by two different emulsifiers, namely, Pluronic F127 (PF127) and lauroylcholine chloride (LCh), are investigated for structural features and for short-term in vitro cytotoxicity. Depending on the emulsifiers, different morphologies of the lipid NPs (cubosomes and liposomes) are obtained, as demonstrated by cryo-TEM images. Although NPs offer many advantages in medical applications and various chemicals used for their preparation are under investigation, so far there are no standardized procedures to evaluate cell biocompatibility. Two different protocols to evaluate the impact of these lipid NPs on biological systems are presented. Results show that nanoparticles stabilized by PF127 (cubosomes) display a relevant toxicity toward different cell lines, whereas those stabilized by LCh (liposomes) affect cell viability at a much lesser extent.

Central nervous system toxicity of metallic nanoparticles

“…For instance, labeled lipid NPs have been designed to study the in vivo distribution of liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin using PET. 26 Stockhammer et al 27 utilized PET to target intratumorally injected MNPs in patients with glioblastoma.…”

Self-Assembled Multicompartment Liquid Crystalline Lipid Carriers for Protein, Peptide, and Nucleic Acid Drug Delivery

“…To solve the problem of cytotoxicity, 28 polysaccharides and other amphiphilic polymers have been proposed as emulsifiers and stabilizers for cubosomes. Cubic NPs have been stabilized by PEG copolymers with lipid-mimetic hydrophobic anchors, 29 but data regarding their cytotoxicity are still not available.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The investigations, by means of time-resolved SAXS, of the dynamic topological transitions of selfassembled amphiphilic mixtures have allowed the discovery of lipid-based nanocarriers with tunable internal organizations and nanochannel sizes. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] The phase states of nonlamellar lipids, amphiphilic mixtures with lipopolymers or lipophilic conjugates, such as peptide surfactants, squalenoyl (SQ) derivatives, and acylated and peptidolipidyl-modified cyclodextrins, have been studied toward the design of novel controlled drug delivery nanocarriers with enhanced performance. In this Account, we discuss structural studies of lipid and lipid-polymer self-assemblies in aqueous phase that characterized the nanochannel network organization of amphiphilic vehicles for entrapment of proteins and peptides, as well as of DNA.…”

A novel glyceryl monoolein-bearing cubosomes for gambogenic acid: Preparation, cytotoxicity and intracellular uptake

“…Based on the assumption that cell apoptosis was preceded by membrane permeability loss and nuclear chromatin condensation, selective determination of cell damage was performed using DAPI to visualize cells showing much higher nuclear fluorescence (Murgia et al, 2010). As shown in Fig.…”