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Lipid/Polymeric Membrane Based Drug Delivery Systems

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A special issue of Membranes (ISSN 2077-0375). This special issue belongs to the section "Biological Membrane Functions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2023) | Viewed by 8607

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Santosh Bashyal

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Guest Editor

College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
Interests: drug delivery; lipid nanocarriers; polymeric nanocarriers; liposomal drug delivery systems; exosome-based drug delivery systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Prakash Gangadaran

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Guest Editor

Department of Biomedical Science & Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41944, Korea
Interests: oral cancer; extracellular vesicles; molecular and nuclear imaging; wound healing; cell-based cancer therapies and tyrosine kinase inhibitor
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the numerous current and innovative initiatives for developing drug delivery systems, there are still insurmountable obstacles in clinical application. Thus, a flawless drug delivery system that can bypass the barrier and boost therapeutic efficacy is urgently required. Lipid/polymeric membrane-based drug delivery systems such as liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, self-emulsifying drug delivery systems, and polymeric vesicles hold unrivaled benefits as a drug delivery vehicle for treating unmet clinical needs.

Extracellular vesicles/exosomes are the types of endogenous nanosized phospholipid bilayer-enclosed vesicles released by all cell types and play an important role in cell communication. Exosomes are well suited for specific-targeted drug delivery systems due to their special qualities, including their capacity to cross physical barriers, biocompatibility, intrinsic targeting traits, capacity to use natural intracellular trafficking pathways, preferred tumor homing, and stability. Thereby, exosomes have tremendous potential as new drug delivery systems.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the recent progress in lipid and polymer-based membrane nanoplatforms and their strategies to facilitate drugs to the body. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Lipid-based drug delivery systems
Polymer-based drug delivery systems
Exosome-based drug delivery systems

We welcome both research and review articles and look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Santosh Bashyal
Dr. Prakash Gangadaran
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Membranes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

liposomes
solid lipid nanoparticles
nanostructured lipid carriers
self-emulsifying drug delivery systems
micelles
polymeric nanoparticles
extracellular vesicles/exosomes
exosome-mimetic vesicles

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 7472 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Development and In Vitro Analysis of Layer-by-Layer Assembled Membranes for Potential Wound Dressing: Electrospun Curcumin/Gelatin as Middle Layer and Gentamicin/Polyvinyl Alcohol as Outer Layers

by Ssu-Meng Huang, Shih-Ming Liu, Hua-Yi Tseng and Wen-Cheng Chen

Membranes 2023, 13(6), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13060564 - 30 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1724

Abstract

Nanofibrous membranes made of hydrogels have high specific surface areas and are suitable as drug carriers. Multilayer membranes fabricated by continuous electrospinning could delay drug release by increasing diffusion pathways, which is beneficial for long-term wound care. In this experiment, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and gelatin were used as membrane substrates, and a sandwich PVA/gelatin/PVA structure of layer-by-layer membranes was prepared by electrospinning under different drug loading concentrations and spinning times. The outer layers on both sides were citric-acid-crosslinked PVA membranes loaded with gentamicin as an electrospinning solution, and the middle layer was a curcumin-loaded gelatin membrane for the study of release behavior, antibacterial activity, and biocompatibility. According to the in vitro release results, the multilayer membrane could release curcumin slowly; the release amount was about 55% less than that of the single layer within 4 days. Most of the prepared membranes showed no significant degradation during immersion, and the phosphonate-buffered saline absorption rate of the multilayer membrane was about five to six times its weight. The results of the antibacterial test showed that the multilayer membrane loaded with gentamicin had a good inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. In addition, the layer-by-layer assembled membrane was non-cytotoxic but detrimental to cell attachment at all gentamicin-carrying concentrations. This feature could be used as a wound dressing to reduce secondary damage to the wound when changing the dressing. This multilayer wound dressing could be applied to wounds in the future to reduce the risk of bacterial infection and help wounds heal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid/Polymeric Membrane Based Drug Delivery Systems)

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18 pages, 2902 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design of an Antibiotic-Releasing Polymer: Physicochemical Characterization and Drug Release Patterns

by Himabindu Padinjarathil, Srikrishna Mudradi, Rajalakshmi Balasubramanian, Carmelo Drago, Sandro Dattilo, Nikhil K. Kothurkar and Prasanna Ramani

Membranes 2023, 13(1), 102; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes13010102 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1587

Abstract

Conventional drug delivery has its share of shortcomings, especially its rapid drug release with a relatively short duration of therapeutic drug concentrations, even in topical applications. Prolonged drug release can be effectively achieved by modifying the carrier in a drug delivery system. Among the several candidates for carriers studied over the years, poly (ether ether ketone), a biocompatible thermoplastic, was chosen as a suitable carrier. Its inherent hydrophobicity was overcome by controlled sulfonation, which introduced polar sulfonate groups onto the polymer backbone. Optimization of the sulfonation process was completed by the variation of the duration, temperature of the sulfonation, and concentration of sulfuric acid. The sulfonation was confirmed by EDS and the degree of sulfonation was determined by an NMR analysis (61.6% and 98.9%). Various physical properties such as morphology, mechanical strength, and thermal stability were studied using scanning electron microscopy, tensile testing, and thermogravimetric analysis. Cytotoxicity tests were performed on the SPEEK samples to study the variation in biocompatibility against a Vero cell line. The drug release kinetics of ciprofloxacin (CP) and nalidixic acid sodium salt (NA)-loaded membranes were studied in deionized water as well as SBF and compared against the absorbance of standardized solutions of the drug. The data were then used to determine the diffusion, distribution, and permeability coefficients. Various mathematical models were used to fit the obtained data to establish the order and mechanism of drug release. Studies revealed that drug release occurs by diffusion and follows zero-order kinetics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid/Polymeric Membrane Based Drug Delivery Systems)

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10 pages, 1130 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Charged Lipids Influence Phase Separation in Cell-Sized Liposomes Containing Cholesterol or Ergosterol

by Tsuyoshi Yoda

Membranes 2022, 12(11), 1121; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12111121 - 09 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1596

Abstract

Positively charged ion species and charged lipids play specific roles in biochemical processes, especially those involving cell membranes. The cell membrane and phase separation domains are attractive research targets to study signal transduction. The phase separation structure and functions of cell-sized liposomes containing charged lipids and cholesterol have been investigated earlier, and the domain structure has also been studied in a membrane model, containing the yeast sterol ergosterol. The present study investigates phase-separated domain structure alterations in membranes containing charged lipids when cholesterol is substituted with ergosterol. This study finds that ergosterol increases the homogeneity of membranes containing charged lipids. Cholesterol-containing membranes are more sensitive to a charged state, and ergosterol-containing liposomes show lower responses to charged lipids. These findings may improve our understanding of the differences in both yeast and mammalian cells, as well as the interactions of proteins with lipids during signal transduction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid/Polymeric Membrane Based Drug Delivery Systems)

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Review

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16 pages, 20170 KiB

Open AccessReview

Perspective on the Application of Erythrocyte Liposome-Based Drug Delivery for Infectious Diseases

by Hannah Krivić, Sebastian Himbert and Maikel C. Rheinstädter

Membranes 2022, 12(12), 1226; https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12121226 - 03 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2573

Abstract

Nanoparticles are explored as drug carriers with the promise for the treatment of diseases to increase the efficacy and also reduce side effects sometimes seen with conventional drugs. To accomplish this goal, drugs are encapsulated in or conjugated to the nanocarriers and selectively delivered to their targets. Potential applications include immunization, the delivery of anti-cancer drugs to tumours, antibiotics to infections, targeting resistant bacteria, and delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain. Despite this great promise and potential, drug delivery systems have yet to be established, mainly due to their limitations in physical instability and rapid clearance by the host’s immune response. Recent interest has been taken in using red blood cells (RBC) as drug carriers due to their naturally long circulation time, flexible structure, and direct access to many target sites. This includes coating of nanoparticles with the membrane of red blood cells, and the fabrication and manipulation of liposomes made of the red blood cells’ cytoplasmic membrane. The properties of these erythrocyte liposomes, such as charge and elastic properties, can be tuned through the incorporation of synthetic lipids to optimize physical properties and the loading efficiency and retention of different drugs. Specificity can be established through the anchorage of antigens and antibodies in the liposomal membrane to achieve targeted delivery. Although still at an early stage, this erythrocyte-based platform shows first promising results in vitro and in animal studies. However, their full potential in terms of increased efficacy and side effect minimization still needs to be explored in vivo. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid/Polymeric Membrane Based Drug Delivery Systems)

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