Xinsong Li

Fabrication of zein/hyaluronic acid fibrous membranes by electrospinning

Electrospinning of biopolymers, such as proteins and polysaccharides, has recently attracted much attention for the fabrication of scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this report, zein/hyaluronic acid (HA) blend fibrous membranes were electrospun and characterized. To facilitate the compatibility of zein and HA, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) was introduced into aqueous ethanol solutions of the blend. A series of zein/HA/PVP blend fibrous membranes with different volume ratios were successfully electrospun. The effect of blend composition on the morphology of electrospun fibrous membranes was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The average diameter of blend fibers increased with increasing the content of zein component. The electrospun zein/HA/PVP fibrous membranes were then cross-linked by methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). The morphology of the cross-linked zein/HA/PVP fibrous membranes changed slightly compared with un-cross-linked membranes. Tensile tests demonstrated that the mechanical properties of the zein/HA/PVP fibrous membranes were improved by cross-linking.

Liposomes Assembled from a Dual Drug-tailed Phospholipid for Cancer Therapy

We report a novel dual drug-tailed phospholipid which can form liposomes as a combination of prodrug and drug carrier. An amphiphilic dual chlorambucil-tailed phospholipid (DCTP) was synthesized by a straightforward esterification. With two chlorambucil molecules as hydrophobic tails and one glycerophosphatidylcholine molecule as a hydrophilic head, the DCTP, a phospholipid prodrug, undergoes assembly to form a liposome without any additives by the thin lipid film technique. The DCTP liposomes, as an effective carrier of chlorambucil, exhibited a very high loading capacity and excellent stability. The liposomes had higher cytotoxic effects to cancer cell lines than free DCTP and chlorambucil. The in vivo antitumor activity assessment indicated that the DCTP liposomes could inhibit the tumor growth effectively. This novel strategy of dual drug-tailed phospholipid liposomes may be also applicable to other hydrophobic anticancer drugs which have great potential in cancer therapy.

Liposome-like nanocapsules of dual drug-tailed betaine for cancer therapy

A novel dual drug-tailed betaine conjugate amphiphile has been firstly synthesized in which the polar headgroup is derived from glycine betaine and the hydrophobic tails are chlorambucil molecules. The newly prepared conjugate undergoes self-assembly to form stable liposome-like nanocapsules as an effective carrier with high drug loading capacity. The nanocapsules showed higher cytotoxic effects to cancer cell lines than those of free chlorambucil in vitro, and inhibited tumor growth effectively in vivo. This strategy that utilizes new dual drug-tailed betaine conjugate amphiphile to construct a self-assembled nanoparticle drug delivery system may have great potential in cancer chemotherapy.