LipiSensors: Exploiting Lipid Nanoemulsions to Fabricate Ionophore-Based Nanosensors

Ionophore-based nanosensors (IBNS) are tools that enable quantification of analytes in complex chemical and biological systems. IBNS methodology is adopted from that of bulk optodes where an ion exchange event is converted to a change in optical output. While valuable, an important aspect for application is the ability to intentionally tune their size with simple approaches, and ensure that they contain compounds safe for application. Lipidots are a platform of size tunable lipid nanoemulsions with a hydrophobic lipid core typically used for imaging and drug delivery. Here, we present LipiSensors as size tunable IBNS by exploiting the Lipidot model as a hydrophobic structural support for the sensing moieties that are traditionally encased in plasticized PVC nanoparticles. The LipiSensors we demonstrate here are sensitive and selective for calcium, reversible, and have a lifetime of approximately one week. By changing the calcium sensing components inside the hydrophobic core of the LipiSensors to those sensitive for oxygen, they are also able to be used as ratiometric O₂ sensitive nanosensors via a quenching-based mechanism. LipiSensors provide a versatile, general platform nanosensing with the ability to directly tune the size of the sensors while including biocompatible materials as the structural support by merging sensing approaches with the Lipidot platform.