Among the plethora of drug delivery systems that have been developed, liposomes have emerged as one of the most promising avenues for use in the pharmaceutical industry. Owing to their low cost, tunability of size and properties, biocompatibility, ease of administration, and ability to encapsulate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs, extensive research has been conducted to acclimatize liposomes to physiological environments. Such systems could ameliorate the side-effects caused by off-target drug delivery to an appreciable extent, while simultaneously aiding in increasing the local concentration of drugs around affected areas. Herein, we report an alternative approach for triggered release of liposomal contents exploiting the variation in concentrations of small molecule metabolites and ions between healthy and diseased cells. We will report the design, synthesis, and study of ion-responsive systems, which in the presence of the corresponding stimuli, initiate membrane disruption and cargo release. Triggered cargo release was monitored using fluorescence studies along with DLS and STEM experiments to monitor any changes in vesicle size and morphology. In addition, NMR titration and UV-Visible experiments were performed in order to confirm ion binding properties.

Ion-responsive release of contents from liposomes for cellular delivery

ACS Fall 2021

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