Polymersomes: nature inspired nanometer sized compartments

LoPresti, Caterina; Lomas, Hannah; Massignani, Marzia; Smart, Thomas P.; Battaglia, Giuseppe

doi:10.1039/b818869f

Cited by 387 publications

(334 citation statements)

References 149 publications

(179 reference statements)

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“…Synthetic polymers are showing great promise 11 particularly in recent years where liposome and polymer technology have merged in the design of self-assembling membrane-enclosed structures comprised of block copolymers called polymersomes 12,13,14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polymersome-Mediated Delivery of Combination Anticancer Therapy to Head and Neck Cancer Cells: 2D and 3D in Vitro Evaluation

et al. 2014

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Polymersomes have the potential to encapsulate and deliver chemotherapeutic drugs into tumour cells, reducing off-target toxicity that often compromises anti-cancer treatment. Here we assess the ability of the pH-sensitive poly 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine (PMPC)-poly 2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl methacrylate (PDPA) polymersomes to encapsulate chemotherapeutic agents for effective combinational anti-cancer therapy. Polymersome uptake and ability to deliver encapsulated drugs into healthy normal oral cells and oral head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells was measured in two and three-dimensional culture systems. PMPC-PDPA polymersomes were more rapidly internalised by HNSCC cells compared to normal oral cells. Polymersome cellular up-take was found to be mediated by class B scavenger receptors.We also observed that these receptors are more highly expressed by cancer cells compared to normal oral cells, enabling polymersome-mediated targeting. Doxorubicin and paclitaxel were encapsulated into pH-sensitive PMPC-PDPA polymersomes with high efficiencies either in isolation or as a dual-load for both singular and combinational delivery. In monolayer culture, only a short exposure to drug-loaded polymersomes was required to elicit a strong cytotoxic effect. When delivered to three-dimensional tumour models, PMPC-PDPA polymersomes were able to penetrate deep into the centre of the spheroid resulting in extensive cell damage when loaded with both singular and dual-loaded chemotherapeutics. PMPC-PDPA polymersomes offer a novel system for the effective delivery of chemotherapeutics for the treatment of HNSCC.Moreover, the preferential internalisation of PMPC polymersomes by exploiting elevated scavenger receptor expression on cancer cells opens up the opportunity to target polymersomes to tumours.3

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Advances in polymer synthesis techniques have enabled polymers to be designed with optimum properties for drug delivery including high molecular weights, enhanced stability, side chain functionality and more importantly, responsiveness [12][13][14]16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymersome-Mediated Delivery of Combination Anticancer Therapy to Head and Neck Cancer Cells: 2D and 3D in Vitro Evaluation

et al. 2014

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“…The simulations and theoretical models described so far considered the case of hard, non-deformable nanoparticles. However, various nanocarriers, such as liposomes 61 or polymersomes 62 are soft, as well as partially permeable to the internalised drug. To study the differences between these carriers, Li et al 37 performed DPD simulations of particles of different hardness, going from soft-polymeric nanoparticles, medium-hardness liposomes and hard, non-deformable nanoparticles.…”

Section: Predicting and Controlling Nanoparticles Endocytosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory, simulations and the design of functionalized nanoparticles for biomedical applications: A Soft Matter Perspective

Angioletti‐Uberti

2017

npj Comput Mater

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Functionalised nanoparticles for biomedical applications represents an incredibly exciting and rapidly growing field of research. Considering the complexity of the nano-bio interface, an important question is to what extent can theory and simulations be used to study these systems in a realistic, meaningful way. In this review, we will argue for a positive answer to this question. Approaching the issue from a "Soft Matter" perspective, we will consider those properties of functionalised nanoparticles that can be captured within a classical description. We will thus not concentrate on optical and electronic properties, but rather on the way nanoparticles' interactions with the biological environment can be tuned by functionalising their surface and exploited in different contexts relevant to applications. In particular, we wish to provide a critical overview of theoretical and computational coarsegrained models, developed to describe these interactions and present to the readers some of the latest results in this fascinating area of research.

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“…Among these, one of the most promising is based on the use of amphiphilic block copolymers where each soluble and insoluble components are macromolecular and consequently bestowing the vesicles (known as polymersomes) with the extra interactions arising from chain entanglement [10,1]. Such a macromolecular nature allows to impart responsiveness [11], to finely control the surface properties [12], to enhance both colloidal stability [13] and mechanical properties [14], as well as to augment tissue penetration [15]. The most common vesicle's shape is the sphere but tubular, prolate, discocytic, stomatocytic, toroidal and pear-shaped vesicles have all been reported [16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom-up Evolution from Disks to High-Genus Polymersomes

Contini¹,

Pearson²,

Wang³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Polymersomes are vesicles formed by the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers in water, they are one of the most promising alternative of natural vesicles as they add a new dimension in the molecular engineering of aqueous compartments: the amphiphile molecular mass. Here we report the design of polymersomes using a bottom-up approach where the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers poly(2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl phosphorylcholine)-poly(2-(diisopropylamino) ethyl methacrylate) (PMPC-PDPA) into membranes is tuned using pH and temperature. We study this process in detail using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and stop-flow absorbance disclosing the molecular and supramolecular anatomy of each structure observed. We report a clear evolution from disk micelles to vesicle to high-genus vesicles where each passage is controlled by pH switch or temperature. We show that the process can be rationalised adapting membrane physics theories disclosing important scaling principles that allow the estimation of the vesiculation minimal radius as well as chain entanglement and coupling. This allows us to propose a new approach to generate nanoscale vesicles with genus from 0 to 70 which have been very elusive and difficult to control so far.

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Polymersomes: nature inspired nanometer sized compartments

Cited by 387 publications

References 149 publications

Polymersome-Mediated Delivery of Combination Anticancer Therapy to Head and Neck Cancer Cells: 2D and 3D in Vitro Evaluation

Polymersome-Mediated Delivery of Combination Anticancer Therapy to Head and Neck Cancer Cells: 2D and 3D in Vitro Evaluation

Theory, simulations and the design of functionalized nanoparticles for biomedical applications: A Soft Matter Perspective

Bottom-up Evolution from Disks to High-Genus Polymersomes

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