Development of photo-responsive liposomes for biomedical aplications

• Main Author: Malathi Mathiyazhakan
• Other Authors: Xu Chenjie
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69687
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This thesis presents the study of photo-responsive liposomes for light controlled drug delivery and therapy. In the area of liposomes based drug delivery, various clinically successful formulations have been developed and commercialized over the years, but limited success has been achieved in improving the therapeutic efficacy of the nanotherapeutics, due to the lack of proper triggering mechanism to release the encapsulated drugs. Multifunctional liposomes with unique targeting and responsive release attributes are extensively researched to improve the treatment efficacy of the nanotherapeutics. Compared to targeted liposomes and internal stimuli responsive liposomes that often results in off-target release, externally manipulated liposomes are widely preferred. Amongst various external stimuli, light is capable of provides unparalleled and precise control on location, time and dosage of the drug released and are clinically adaptive, cost effective and ease of control. In this light, we demonstrated the facile syntheses of photo-responsive liposomes by associating gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) with temperature sensitive liposomes. The mechanism of drug release from these photo-responsive liposomes were studied using pulsed lasers as the light source. The photoacoustic effect caused by Au NPs disrupts the liposomes to release the encapsulated drug. The efficacy of photoacoustic liposomes was then evaluated on B16 F10 mouse melanoma cells. We validated light triggered drug release to release the encapsulated cancer drugs to the melanoma cells. Furthermore, the potential of the photo-responsive liposomes as contrast agents for photo-acoustic imaging as well as therapeutic for photoacoustic therapy. The light controlled release ability, therapeutic features and imaging capability of photo-responsive liposomes make them promising drug delivery system to skin, eyes and mucous membranes