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Updated: May 21, 2026

Facile Preparation of Internally Self-assembled Lipid Particles Stabilized by Carbon Nanotubes
Published on: February 19, 2016
Block Liposome and Nanotube Formation is a General Phenomenon of Two-Component Membranes Containing Multivalent
Alexandra Zidovska1, Kai K Ewert, Joel Quispe
1Materials, Physics, and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Departments, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.
Abstract:
We report a study on the formation of block liposomes (BLs) and nanotubes from membranes comprised of mixtures of membrane curvature-stabilizing multivalent cationic lipids MVL3(3+) and MVL5(5+) with neutral 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC). In conjunction with prior work on MVLBG2(16+), our experiments suggest that BL and nanotube formation is a general phenomenon in membranes containing multivalent lipids, thus enhancing the relevance of BLs for applications such as gene/drug storage and delivery or templating.
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