Nanoscale partitioning of paclitaxel in hybrid lipid–polymer membranes

Abstract

Paclitaxel is a powerful drug against restenosis and many forms of cancer. However, its clinical application hinges on the ability to achieve suitable stabilized drug concentrations in an aqueous suspension while hindering drug crystallization. To engineer such formulations, it is imperative to understand paclitaxel's partitioning and crystallization within the carrier matrix. Lipid-polymer hybrid films have been recently shown to accommodate large paclitaxel loads and suppress crystallization. Additionally, such hybrid materials promote synergistic drug release compared to the pure constituents. Here, we leverage the composition sensitive photo-thermal induced resonance (PTIR) technique to study paclitaxel partitioning within hybrid films at the nanoscale. PTIR data reveal that paclitaxel nano-crystals segregate from lipid-only films but are well dispersed in polymer-only films. Remarkably, lipid-polymer hybrid films show enhanced partitioning of paclitaxel at the lipid-polymer phase boundaries, but still stifle crystallization, thus paving the way towards compositional and microstructural engineering of small-drug delivery systems.

Hybrid Unilamellar Vesicles of Phospholipids and Block Copolymers with Crystalline Domains

“…When mixed in a hybrid membrane, both lamellar phases are still present. This has been observed for the first time in our laboratory using other PL–BCP systems and it arises from the fact that the BCP-rich and the PL-rich domains are correlated across layers in full registry [ 6 , 12 , 46 ]. The lamellar d -spacing of DPPC in the hybrid system remains at 65 Å and that of mPEG- b -PCL increases slightly to 223 Å.…”

Nanoscale chemical imaging of individual chemotherapeutic cytarabine-loaded liposomal nanocarriers

“…solar cells [50,51], photodetectors [52], pharmaceutics [53], art conservation [54], polymers [55–57], plasmonic structures [58–60], metal-organic frameworks [61] and 2D materials [62,63]. In life sciences applications, PTIR has enabled the investigation of protein secondary structure [64,65], single cells [66], lipids [67,68] and recently, polymeric nanoparticles [69] and hybrid lipid-polymer films [70,71] for drug delivery. Furthermore, PTIR operation in water has been recently demonstrated [72,73], enabling conformational analysis of molecules at the nanoscale and in their native environment [72].…”

High-Q dark hyperbolic phonon-polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride nanostructures

“…Tapping-mode PTIR experiments with probe-A [ 35 , 36 ] were obtained using a piezo actuator to drive the first mechanical resonance of the cantilever ( ), and demodulation of the PTIR signal was performed at the second mechanical resonance ( ). The sample was irradiated with IR pulses at a repetition rate of (see Figure 1D ).…”

“…It should be noted that this detection scheme is very similar to the one used by photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM) [ 37 ], which measures the photoinduced force resulting from the dipole-dipole interactions between the AFM tip and the sample when illuminated by a laser. Although the origin of the PiFM signal (relative contribution of thermal expansion vs. photo-induced force) is still a subject of debate [ 38 - 41 ], and tapping-PTIR and PiFM appear similar, in PiFM [ 39 , 41 ] the probe is tapped in the non-contact regime (attractive tip-sample force) while in tapping PTIR [ 25 , 26 , 35 , 36 ] the tip-sample force is repulsive. PiFM was also used recently to measure HPhPs in hBN nanostructures [ 42 ].…”