Issue 3, 2021

Chitosan-covered liposomes as a promising drug transporter: nanoscale investigations

Abstract

Liposomes are small artificial vesicles spherical shaped of 50–1000 nm in diameter. They are created from natural non-toxic phospholipids membranes. Externally, they are decorated with biocompatible polymers. Chitosan, a natural polymer, demonstrates exceptional advantages in drug delivery, in particular, as liposome cover. In this paper, Molecular Dynamics simulations (MD) are performed in the coupled NPT-NPH and NVT-NVE statistical ensembles to study the static and dynamic properties of DPPC membrane-bilayer with grafted cationic chitosan chains, with added Cl anions to neutralize the environment, using the Martini coarse-grained force-field. From the NPT-NPH MD simulations we found a chitosan layer LDM ranging from 3.2 to 6.6 nm for graft chains of a degree of polymerization np = 45 and different grafting molar fractions Xp = 0.005, Xp = 0.014 and Xp = 0.1. Also, the chitosan chains showed three essential grafting regimes: mushroom, critic, and brush depending on Xp. The DPPC bilayer thickness DB and the area per lipid Al increased proportionally to Xp. From the NVT-NVE MD simulations, the analysis of the radial distribution function showed that the increase of Xp gives a more close-packed and rigid liposome. The analysis of the mean square displacement revealed that the diffusion of lipids is anomalous. In contrast, the diffusion of chitosan chains showed a normal diffusion, just after 100 ps. The diffusion regime of ions is found to be normal and independent of time. For the three identified regimes, the chitosan showed a tendency to adhere to the membrane surface and therefore affect the properties of the liposomal membrane.

Graphical abstract: Chitosan-covered liposomes as a promising drug transporter: nanoscale investigations

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 sep 2020
Accepted
11 dec 2020
First published
05 jan 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2021,11, 1503-1516

Chitosan-covered liposomes as a promising drug transporter: nanoscale investigations

L. Mohammed, H. Nourddine, E. F. Saad, D. Abdelali and R. Hamid, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 1503 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA08305D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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