Physical stimuli-responsive vesicles in drug delivery: Beyond liposomes and polymersomes

Abstract

Over the past few decades, a range of vesicle-based drug delivery systems have entered clinical practice and several others are in various stages of clinical translation. While most of these vesicle constructs are lipid-based (liposomes), or polymer-based (polymersomes), recently new classes of vesicles have emerged that defy easy classification. Examples include assemblies with small molecule amphiphiles, biologically derived membranes, hybrid vesicles with two or more classes of amphiphiles, or more complex hierarchical structures such as vesicles incorporating gas bubbles or nanoparticulates in the lumen or membrane. In this review, we explore these recent advances and emerging trends at the edge and just beyond the research fields of conventional liposomes and polymersomes. A focus of this review is the distinct behaviors observed for these classes of vesicles when exposed to physical stimuli -such as ultrasound, heat, light and mechanical triggers -and we discuss the resulting potential for new types of drug delivery, with a special emphasis on current challenges and opportunities.

X‐ray‐Controlled Bilayer Permeability of Bionic Nanocapsules Stabilized by Nucleobase Pairing Interactions for Pulsatile Drug Delivery

“…Accordingly, various artificial self‐assembled nanostructures with selective membrane permeation abilities have been explored as drug delivery systems to accelerate drug release in response to specific stimuli (e.g., pH, temperature, glucose, etc.) . However, due to the irreversible dissociation of these nanostructures in response to the stimuli, drug release often cannot be controlled.…”

Tailoring Gelation Mechanisms for Advanced Hydrogel Applications

“…Ultrasound-triggered release of cargo has been widely used for drug delivery [122] and has very recently been applied to initiate hydrogelation. [123] There are a number of ultrasound-responsive carriers, including many liposomes, [124,125] micelles, [126] polymersomes, [127] microbubbles, [128,129] and phase-shift nanodroplets. [130] There are also several different mechanisms that can be used for cargo release.…”

Interface Engineering in Multiphase Systems toward Synthetic Cells and Organelles: From Soft Matter Fundamentals to Biomedical Applications

“…[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][63][64][65][66][67][68][69] Moreover, the development in cell-inspired novel carriers for therapeutic nuclei acids and proteins has been progressed excitingly with translational successes. For a prosperous and interdisciplinary field like synthetic cells, there are reviews summarizing from specific aspects, for instance, tailoring appearance of synthetic cells, [2,[70][71][72] elucidating specific functions of synthetic cell modules, [2,71,73] which include adhesion, [58] growth, [57] energy regeneration/conversion, [4,[59][60][61] gene circuits, [56,74] and cellular interactions, [75][76][77] exclusively focusing on applications of synthetic compartments such as delivery carriers [10,18,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][22][23][24]…”