Bi-modal confirmation of liposome delivery to the brain after focused ultrasound-induced blood-brain barrier opening.

Focused ultrasound-mediated opening of the blood-brain barrier offers a great opportunity to deliver therapeutics into hard-to-treat brain tumors such as glioblastoma multiforme or diffuse midline glioma. However, the potential of the technique to offer a time window for efficient nanomedicine delivery has not been thoroughly studied. Non-invasive and targeted delivery of large drug-loaded nanocarriers, such as liposomes, could offer a safe and scalable method of personalized therapy for the treatment of brain pathologies.

Effect of Phase-Change Nanodroplets and Ultrasound on Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability In Vitro.

Phase-change nanodroplets (PCND;NDs) are emulsions with a perfluorocarbon (PFC) core that undergo acoustic vaporisation as a response to ultrasound (US). Nanodroplets change to microbubbles and cavitate while under the effect of US. This cavitation can apply forces on cell connections in biological barrier membranes, such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and trigger a transient and reversible increased permeability to molecules and matter.

Self-Organization of Lipid-Porphyrin Conjugates at the Air/Water Interface.

Lipid-porphyrin conjugates are versatile compounds which can self-assemble into liposome-like structures with multifunctional properties. Most of the conjugates that have been described so far, consisted in grafting pyropheophorbide-a (Pyro-a) or other porphyrin derivatives through the esterification of the hydroxyl group in the sn-2 position of a lysophosphatidylcholine. However, despite the versatility of these conjugates, less is known about the impact of the lipid backbone structure on their 2D phase behavior at the air/water interface and more precisely on their fine structures normal to the interface as well as on their in-plane organization.

Novel liposome-like assemblies composed of phospholipid-porphyrin conjugates with photothermal and photodynamic activities against bacterial biofilms.

Phospholipid-Porphyrin (PL-Por) conjugates are unique building blocks that can self assemble into liposome-like structures with improved photophysical properties compared to their monomeric counterparts. The high packing density of porphyrin moieties enables these assemblies to exhibit high photothermal conversion efficiency as well as photodynamic activity. Thus, PL-Por conjugates assemblies can be used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) applications against resistant bacteria and biofilms.

Phospholipid-porphyrin conjugates: deciphering the driving forces behind their supramolecular assemblies.

Phospholipid-porphyrin conjugates (PL-Por) are nowadays considered as a unique class of building blocks that can self-assemble into supramolecular structures that possess multifunctional properties and enhanced optoelectronics characteristics compared to their disassembled counterparts. However, despite their versatile properties, little is known about the impact of the packing parameter of PL-Por conjugates on their assembling mechanism and their molecular organization inside these assemblies. To gain a better understanding on their assembling properties, we synthesized two new series of PL-Por conjugates with different alkyl sn2-chain lengths linked an amide bond to either pheophorbide-a (PhLPC) or pyropheophorbide-a (PyrLPC).