Stimuli-responsive liposome fusion mediated by gold nanoparticles

Dissaya Pornpattananangkul, Sage Olson, Santosh Aryal, Marta Sartor, Chun Ming Huang, Kenneth Vecchio, Liangfang Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

148 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a new approach to controlling the fusion activity of liposomes by adsorbing carboxyl-modified gold nanoparticles to the outer surface of phospholipid liposomes. The bound gold nanoparticles can effectively prevent liposomes from fusing with one another at neutral pH value, while at acidic environments (e.g., pH < 5), the gold particle stabilizers will detach from the liposomes, with liposome fusion activity resuming. The binding of carboxyl-modified gold nanoparticles to cationic phospholipid liposomes at neutral pH and detaching at acidic pH values are evaluated and confirmed by dynamic light scattering, electron microscopy, fluorescence and UV-vis absorption experiments. The relative fusion efficiency of gold-nanoparticle- stabilized cationic liposomes with anionic liposomes is ∼25% at pH = 7 in contrast to ∼80% at pH = 4. Since liposomes have been extensively used as drug nanocarriers and the infectious lesions on human skin are typically acidic with a pH < 5, these acid-responsive liposomes with tunable fusion ability hold great promise for dermal drug delivery to treat a variety of skin diseases such as acne vulgaris and staph infections.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1935-1942
Number of pages8
JournalACS Nano
Volume4
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 27 2010

Keywords

  • Acidresponsive
  • Drug delivery
  • Nanoparticle
  • Phospholipid liposome
  • Vesicle fusion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering
  • General Materials Science
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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