Polymers & Polymerizable Lipids

Polymerizable lipids, also known as lipid monomers, are a class of lipids that can polymerize to form lipid-based polymers. These polymers are commonly used in a variety of applications, including drug delivery, tissue engineering and biomaterials. Polymerizable lipids are usually composed of a lipid backbone and polymerizable groups attached to the backbone, which can be fatty acids, phospholipids or glycerol derivatives. Polymerizable groups can be double bonds, functional groups that can initiate polymerization, or reactive groups that can undergo chemical reactions to form polymers.

Fig. 1. Examples of polymerizable lipids.

Advantages of Polymerizable Lipids

Polymerizable lipids have many advantages for the production of lipid polymers. They can be easily contained in lipid micelles or bilayers to form stable lipid nanoparticles. Various stimuli such as light, heat or enzymes can cause polymerization, so that the process can be precisely controlled. In addition, the properties of the resulting polymers can be tailored by adjusting the structure and composition of the polymerizable lipids. The resulting lipid-based polymers may have special qualities, including better biocompatibility, higher stability and drug loading capacity. When drugs are encapsulated in a polymer matrix and delivered in a controlled manner, these polymers are helpful as drug carriers. In addition, they can also be used as three-dimensional scaffolds for cell growth and tissue regeneration in tissue engineering.

Polymer Liposome

Liposomes called polymer liposomes have polymeric components included into their structure. Similar to conventional liposomes, polymeric liposomes have an aqueous core surrounded by a lipid bilayer. Yet they also include polymeric components in the lipid bilayer or the aqueous core. Polymeric liposomes may now be made from a wide range of polymers, including natural polymers like chitosan or alginate as well as synthetic polymers like PEG, polylactic acid (PLA), polylactic-glycolic acid (PLGA), and polyethyleneimine (PEI).

Fig. 2. Polymer-modified liposomes (Pharmaceutics 2022, 14: 778).

Drug loading in polymer liposomes may be greater than in traditional liposomes. Polymers can make more gaps inside the liposomal structure, enabling the encapsulation of greater doses of medications or other therapeutic substances. Polymer incorporation can increase the stability of liposomes by reducing aggregation, leakage, or destruction. For instance, pegylation can lengthen the period that liposomes circulate in the blood, decreasing the immune system's ability to remove them. Polymers can also be functionalized with ligands or antibodies to target particular cells or tissues in a specific way. By enabling medication delivery to certain areas, this lowers the risk of off-target consequences and boosts therapeutic effectiveness. At present, polymer liposomes are widely used in gene therapy, contrast agents, anticancer drugs, vaccines, antibiotics and other fields.

Polymerizable Lipids Suppliers

BOC Sciences offers a series of polymerizable lipids such as N-hexadecyl-pSar25, N-tetradecyl-pSar25 and N-TETAMINE-pSar45. These lipid molecules are constructed with certain functional groups, such as double bonds, acrylate groups, or other reactive moieties, that can take part in polymerization activities. Our experts may precisely control the characteristics of the final polymer or hydrogel to satisfy a client's particular requirements by carefully choosing the suitable lipid structure and functional groups.

Reference

1. Cao, Y.F. et al. Polymer-modified liposomes for drug delivery: from fundamentals to applications. Pharmaceutics. 2022, 14: 778.