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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Transport Properties of Ibuprofen Encapsulated in Cyclodextrin Nanosponge Hydrogels: A Proton HR-MAS NMR Spectroscopy Study
Published on: August 15, 2016
Interactions of ibuprofen with hybrid lipid bilayers probed by complementary surface-enhanced vibrational
Carly S Levin1, Janardan Kundu, Benjamin G Janesko
1Department of Chemistry, Department of Bioengineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892, USA.
Abstract:
The incorporation of small molecules into lipid bilayers is a process of biological importance and clinical relevance that can change the material properties of cell membranes and cause deleterious side effects for certain drugs. Here we report the direct observation, using surface-enhanced Raman and IR spectroscopies (SERS, SEIRA), of the insertion of ibuprofen molecules into hybrid lipid bilayers. The alkanethiol-phospholipid hybrid bilayers were formed onto gold nanoshells by self-assembly, where the underlying nanoshell substrates provided the necessary enhancements for SERS and SEIRA. The spectroscopic data reveal specific interactions between ibuprofen and phospholipid moieties and indicate that the overall hydrophobicity of ibuprofen plays an important role in its intercalation in these membrane mimics.
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