Insight into theranostic nanovesicles prepared by thin lipid hydration and microfluidic method

Area of Science:

• Nanomedicine
• Biotechnology
• Materials Science

Background:

• Liposomes are versatile nanoparticles for drug delivery and imaging.
• Multimodality functionalization of liposomes is crucial for advanced theranostics.
• Developing efficient methods for co-encapsulating therapeutic and imaging agents is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and characterize novel theranostic liposomes for cancer therapy.
• To compare microfluidics with traditional thin-film hydration (TLH) methods for liposome preparation.
• To evaluate the co-delivery of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent and a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy (PDT).

Main Methods:

• Theranostic liposomes were prepared using a microfluidic method and thin-film hydration (TLH) with extrusion.
• Liposomes encapsulated a gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent and zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) for PDT.
• Characterization included size analysis, drug loading capacity, relaxivity measurements, and in vitro photodynamic efficacy assays.

Main Results:

• Microfluidics yielded liposomes with double the ZnPc loading capacity and 2.5x smaller size compared to TLH/extrusion.
• Microfluidic-produced liposomes showed increased MRI relaxivity despite slightly lower gadolinium recovery.
• The theranostic liposomes demonstrated significant photodynamic efficacy in a head and neck cancer model (IC50: 0.22-0.61 μM).

Conclusions:

• Microfluidics is a feasible and high-yield method for manufacturing theranostic liposomes.
• This approach enables single-step co-entrapment of therapeutic and imaging agents.
• The developed theranostic liposomes show promise for combined cancer imaging and therapy.