Evidence suggests cholesterol accumulation in pro-inflammatory endothelial cells (EC) contributes to triggering atherogenesis and driving atherosclerosis progression. Therefore, inhibiting miR-33a-5p within inflamed endothelium may prevent treat by enhancing apoAI-mediated efflux upregulating ABCA1. However, it is not entirely elucidated whether inhibition of EC capable increasing ABCA1-depende...

The fusion mechanism of polymersomes self-assembled by rod-coil copolymers is intrinsically different from that of liposomes due to the effect of chain topology on conformational entropy and molecular packing. The influences of membrane tension, coil-block length, rod-block length, mutual compatibility between the solvent and the rod-coil block, and π-π interaction strength on the fusion pathwa...

Curcumin is a potent natural anticancer agent, but its effectiveness is limited by properties such as very low solubility, high rate of degradation, and low rate of absorption of its hydrophobic molecules in vivo. To date, various nanocarriers have been used to improve the bioavailability of this hydrophobic biomaterial. This study investigates the encapsulation of curcumin in a novel nanostruc...

The dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2), a G-protein coupled receptor is expressed into PBd(22)-PEO(13) and PMOXA(20)-PDMS(54)-PMOXA(20) block copolymer vesicles. The conformational integrity of the receptor is confirmed by antibody- and ligand-binding assays. Replacement of bound dopamine is demonstrated on surface-immobilized polymersomes, thus making this a promising platform for drug screening.

We present a methodology to entrap and run the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction inside a polymer vesicle. We report on experiments with polymer vesicles where we observed (1) vesicle membrane deformations, (2) oscillations and (3) pulsating (expansion/contraction) episodes. The above provide us with evidence for chemo-mechanical coupling between these polymersomes and their contents.