Xu Zexi, Booth Andrew, Rappolt Michael, Peckham Michelle, Tyler Arwen I I, Beales Paul A
School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
School of Chemistry and Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2025 Jan 27;64(5):e202414970. doi: 10.1002/anie.202414970. Epub 2024 Dec 17.
Lipid nanoparticles have important applications as biomedical delivery platforms and broader engineering biology applications in artificial cell technologies. These emerging technologies often require changes in the shape and topology of biological or biomimetic membranes. Here we show that topologically-active lyotropic liquid crystal nanoparticles (LCNPs) can trigger such transformations in the membranes of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). Monoolein (MO) LCNPs, cubosomes with an internal nanostructure of space group incorporate into 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) GUVs creating excess membrane area with stored curvature stress. Using time-resolved fluorescence confocal and lattice light sheet microscopy, we observe and characterise various life-like dynamic events in these GUVs, including growth, division, tubulation, membrane budding and fusion. Our results shed new light on the interactions of LCNPs with bilayer lipid membranes, providing insights relevant to how these nanoparticles might interact with cellular membranes during drug delivery and highlighting their potential as minimal triggers of topological transitions in artificial cells.
脂质纳米颗粒作为生物医学递送平台具有重要应用，并且在人工细胞技术中有更广泛的工程生物学应用。这些新兴技术通常需要改变生物膜或仿生膜的形状和拓扑结构。在此，我们表明具有拓扑活性的溶致液晶纳米颗粒（LCNPs）能够引发巨型单层囊泡（GUVs）膜的此类转变。单油酸甘油酯（MO）LCNPs，即具有空间群内部纳米结构的立方相液晶，融入1,2 - 二油酰 - sn - 甘油 - 3 - 磷酸胆碱（DOPC）GUVs中，产生具有储存曲率应力的多余膜面积。使用时间分辨荧光共聚焦显微镜和晶格光片显微镜，我们观察并表征了这些GUVs中各种类似生命的动态事件，包括生长、分裂、成管、膜出芽和融合。我们的结果为LCNPs与双层脂质膜的相互作用提供了新的见解，揭示了这些纳米颗粒在药物递送过程中与细胞膜相互作用的相关信息，并突出了它们作为人工细胞中拓扑转变最小触发因素的潜力。
