Incorporating
water-insoluble nitric oxide (NO)-releasing molecules
into biocompatible vesicles may allow for the tunable control of NO
release on a specific target site. In vesicles, membrane fluidity
plays an important role and influences the final therapeutic efficiency
of drugs loaded into the vesicles. Hence, we aimed to investigate
the effect of lipid fluidity on the NO release behavior of the photo-controllable
ruthenium nitrosyl (Ru-NO) complex. In this regard, a new photoactive
ruthenium nitrosyl complex (L.Ru-NO) with amphiphilic
terpyridine ligand was synthesized and characterized in detail. L.Ru-NO was incorporated with commercial phospholipids to
form nanoscale vesicles L.Ru-NO@Lip. The photoactive
{Ru-NO}6 type complex released NO in the organic solvent
CH3CN and aqueous liposome solution by irradiating under
low-intensity blue light (λ = 410 nm, 3 W). To demonstrate the
effect of lipid structure and fluidity on NO release, four different
liposome systems L.Ru-NO@Lip1–4 were prepared
by using phospholipids such as DOPC, DSPC, DPPC, and DMPC having different
chain lengths and saturation. The NO-releasing abilities of these
liposomes in aqueous medium were studied by UV–vis spectrum,
colorimetric Greiss, and fluorescent DAF assay. The results show that
the rate of NO release could be easily tuned by varying the lipid
fluidity. The effect of temperature and pH on NO release was also
studied. Further, the complex L.Ru-NO and liposomes L.Ru-NO@Lip1 were assayed as an antibacterial agent against
the strains of bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.