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Liposomes pp 209–226Cite as

Long-Circulating, pH-Sensitive Liposomes

Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB,volume 1522)

Abstract

A major limiting factor for the wide application of pH-sensitive liposomes is their recognition and sequestration by the phagocytes of the reticuloendothelial system, which conditions a very short circulation half-life. Typically prolonged circulation of liposomes is achieved by grafting their membranes with pegylated phospholipids (PEG-lipids), which have been shown, however, to deteriorate membrane integrity on one hand and to hamper the pH-responsiveness on the other. Hence, the need for novel alternative surface modifying agents to ensure effective half-life prolongation of pH-sensitive liposomes is a subject of intensive research. A series of copolymers having short blocks of lipid-mimetic units has been shown to sterically stabilize conventional liposomes based on different phospholipids. This has prompted us to broaden their utilization to pH-sensitive liposomes, too. The present contribution gives a thorough account on the chemical synthesis of these copolymers their incorporation in DOPE:CHEMs pH-sensitive liposomes and detailed explanation on the battery of techniques for the biopharmaceutical characterization of the prepared formulations in terms of pH-responsiveness, cellular internalization, in vivo pharmacokinetics and biodistribution.

Key words

  • pH-sensitive liposomes
  • Steric stabilization
  • PEG-lipids
  • Block copolymers

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia, 2 Dunav Str., 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Denitsa Momekova Ph.D. & Nikolay Lambov Ph.D.

  2. Institute of polymers, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Stanislav Rangelov Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Denitsa Momekova Ph.D.
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  2. Stanislav Rangelov Ph.D.
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  3. Nikolay Lambov Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Denitsa Momekova Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy – Boston, MCPHS University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Gerard G.M. D'Souza

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Momekova, D., Rangelov, S., Lambov, N. (2017). Long-Circulating, pH-Sensitive Liposomes. In: D'Souza, G. (eds) Liposomes. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1522. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6591-5_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6591-5_16

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