As pharmaceutical therapeutics and diagnostic agents become increasingly advanced and sophisticated, it is vital to develop an advanced delivery platform that is compatible with both the latest drug therapies and diagnostic agents, and able to integrate them into one theranostic system. Preliminary research data has demonstrated that bicelle are an ideal candidate as a flexible and sophisticated theranostic platform. Bicelles are disk-shaped lipid compositions, primarily comprised of long-chain lipids and short-chained lipids. The long-chain lipids form the planar region of the disk, while the short-chain lipids form the rim region, resulting in a hydrophilic exterior and a hydrophobic interior. Therefore, they can be used as carriers for hydrophobic drugs and agents. A number of advanced anti-cancer compounds were successfully encapsulated and tested in-vitro on a mouse ependymoma cell line with a Trypan-blue assay. For diagnostic agents, a combination of organic fluorophores and quantum dots (QDs) were similarly encapsulated within bicelles, and both tested in-vitro on Hek293t cells, and in-vivo on nude mice. The analyses of a combination of confocal microscopy, IVIS, and TEM indicate that bicelles are able to deliver active diagnostic agents into biological systems. The results show promising potential for bicelle to be further developed as a theranostic delivery nanoplatform.

Development, characterization, and evaluation of lipid membrane bicelles as an advanced theranostic platform

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.