Light-sensitive fusion between polymer-coated liposomes following physical anchoring of di-block copolymers onto lipid bilayers by self-assembly

Delivery of therapeutics (drugs, radionuclides or genes) in vivo can be optimized when carried by a targeting delivery vehicle such as a surfactant vesicle, polymeric micelle or other polymer-coated colloidal particulate. In the present communication, we propose a general method based on self-assembly principles, to construct lipid-polymer bilayer vesicles whose featured characteristics may be altered according to the polymer molecule used, thus be easily designed along the needs of a particular delivery application. Polymer molecules containing non-polymerizable (polypropylene) and polymerisable (methacrylate) hydrophobic groups were used to construct lipid-polymer vesicles by following two different methods of preparation.