Mixing block copolymers with phospholipids at the nanoscale: from hybrid polymer/lipid worm-like micelles to vesicles presenting lipid nano-domains

T. P. Tuyen Dao (1, 2) , Annie Brûlet (3) , Fabio Fernandes (4) , Meriem Er-Rafik (5) , Khalid Ferji (1, 2) , Jean-Paul Chapel (6) , Ralf Schweins (7) , Alexander Fedorov (4) , Marc Schmutz (5) , Manuel Prieto (4) , Olivier Sandre (1, 2) , Jean-François Le Meins (1, 2)

1 LCPO - Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques
2 Team 3 LCPO : Polymer Self-Assembly & Life Sciences
3 LLB - UMR 12 - Laboratoire Léon Brillouin
4 ULISBOA - Universidade de Lisboa = University of Lisbon
5 ICS - Institut Charles Sadron
6 CRPP - Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal
7 ILL - Institut Laue-Langevin

Hybrid, i.e. intimately mixed polymer/phospholipid vesicles can potentially marry in a single membrane the best characteristics of the two separate components. The ability of amphiphilic copolymers and phospholipids to self-assemble into hybrid membranes has been studied until now at the sub-micron scale using optical microscopy on Giant Hybrid Unilamellar Vesicles (GHUVs), but limited information is available on Large Hybrid Unilamellar Vesicles (LHUVs). In this work, copolymers based on poly(dimethyl siloxane) and poly(ethylene oxide) with different molar masses and architectures (graft, triblock) were associated with 1,2-di-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC). Classical protocols of LUV formation were used to obtain nano-sized self-assembled structures. Using Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS), Time Resolved Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (TR-FRET) and Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy (Cryo-TEM), we show that copolymer architecture and molar mass have a direct consequence on the formation of hybrid nanostructures that can range from worm-like hybrid micelles to hybrid vesicles presenting small lipid nanodomains.

Mots clés: lipid nanodomains; Hybrid Polymer Lipid Unilamellar Vesicle; membrane; polymersomes

Domaines: Polymères; Chimie théorique et/ou physique

T. P. Tuyen Dao, Annie Brûlet, Fabio Fernandes, Meriem Er-Rafik, Khalid Ferji, et al.. Mixing block copolymers with phospholipids at the nanoscale: from hybrid polymer/lipid worm-like micelles to vesicles presenting lipid nano-domains. Langmuir, 2017, 33 (7), pp.1705-1715. ⟨10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b04478⟩. ⟨hal-01448607⟩