In Vitro and in Vivo Behavior of Liposomes Decorated with PEGs with Different Chemical Features

The colloidal stability, in vitro toxicity, cell association, and in vivo pharmacokinetic behavior of liposomes decorated with monomethoxy-poly(ethylene glycol)-lipids (mPEG-lipids) with different chemical features were comparatively investigated. Structural differences of the mPEG-lipids used in the study included: (a) surface-anchoring moiety [1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DSPE), cholesterol (Chol), and cholane (Chin)]; (b) mPEG molecular weight (2 kDa mPEG and 5 kDa mPEG(114)); and (c) mPEG shape (linear and branched PEG). In vitro results demonstrated that branched (mPEG(114))(2)-DSPE confers the highest stealth properties to liposomes (similar to 31-fold lower cell association than naked liposomes) with respect to all PEGylating agents tested. However, the pharmacokinetic studies showed that the use of cholesterol as anchoring group yields PEGylated liposomes with longer permeance in the circulation and higher systemic bioavailability among the tested formulations. Liposomes decorated with mPEG(114)-Chol had 3.2- and similar to 2.1-fold higher area under curve (AUC) than naked liposomes and branched (mPEG(114))(2)-DSPE-coated liposomes, respectively, which reflects the high stability of this coating agent. By comparing the PEGylating agents with same size, namely, linear 5 kDa PEG derivatives, linear mPEG(114)-DSPE yielded coated liposomes with the best in vitro stealth performance. Nevertheless, the in vivo AUC of liposomes decorated with linear mPEG(114)-DSPE was lower than that obtained with liposomes decorated with linear mPEG(114)-Chol. Computational molecular dynamics modeling provided additional insights that complement the experimental results.