Synthesis of lipids for development of multifunctional lipid-based drug-carriers

A simple approach to synthesize phospholipids to modulate drug release and track lipid-based particulate drug-carriers is described. We synthesized two ether lipids, 1 1-O-hexadecyl-2-pentadenoyl-sn-glycerol- 3-phosphocholine (C31PC) and 2 1-O-hexadecyl-2-pentadenoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphomethanol (C31PM), and examined their ability to alter enzymatically triggered release of 6-carboxyfluorescein from liposomes incubated in TRIS buffer or fetal bovine serum solutions. Further, we demonstrated that odd-chain lipids, for example, C31PC, could be identified in rat plasma without interference of endogenous lipids. This approach can be adapted to synthesize a variety of lipids for use in developing and optimizing multifunctional drug-carriers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.