Work

Liposomes for Magnetic Resonance Image-Guided Drug Delivery; Lipid Chain Length Affects Drug Release and MRI Relaxivity

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Image-guided drug delivery is a method for tracking drug carriers for activation in specific lesions in the body. Image guidance uses the labelling of the drug or carrier and a clinically approved imaging modality. MRI (magnetic resonance image)-guided drug delivery has been considered for focused ultrasound tumour-targeted drug release. Liposomes are labelled for MRI tracking and the confirmation of drug delivery. In this study, we prepared two lipids conjugated to Gd-DOTA that confer MR imaging properties. Two lipid conjugates to DOTA, a C18 (LCA-1) and a C16 (LCA-2), were synthesised. The lipids were combined at different ratios within the lipid mix, and we investigated their effects on the liposome’s Tm using DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and on relaxivity using NMR. The results show that when different combinations of LCA-1 and LCA-2 were introduced into the liposomes, their ratio affected both thermal drug release and relaxivity. As these lipids are part of the liposomal membrane, they confer tracking ability, and their effect on relaxivity due to thermal release could enable the confirmation of liposomal drug release using MRI at clinically relevant magnetic field strengths.

Source: Molecules

DOI: 10.3390/molecules30081729

Authors: Paul Cressey, Jacob C. Wilson, Maral Amrahli, Maya Thanou

Institution: King's College London

Language: English

Topic: Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery

Subfield: Biomaterials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,258