Delivery of molecules to cancer cells using liposomes from bacterial cultures

Liposomes have a variety of applications as model systems to study enclosed biological membranes, as delivery vehicles for a variety of drugs and as micro- and nano-reactors, amongst others. However, preparation of liposomes requires use of expensive raw material (synthetic lipids) from specialized commercial suppliers, and ability to make reproducible preparations remains a specialized art till date. In this work, we prepared liposomes using natural lipids extracted from the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), which are extremely economical compared to the synthetic lipids. We demonstrate robust procedures for convenient and reproducible preparations of 200-300 nm diameter liposomes from bacterial cells. We also show a potential application of these bacterial liposomes in delivery of aqueous molecules to cancer cells. We show not only intracellular uptake, but also biodegradation of the liposomes inside cancer cells. Our economical liposomes promise to serve as excellent model systems for studies on encapsulation of molecules inside soft materials with desired efficiencies. Additionally, they certainly show a strong potential to be tools for research in diverse areas ranging from drug delivery applications to sub-micron reaction engineering for carrying out and understanding the mechanisms of chemical reactions in small enclosed volumes.