Bringing lipidic lyotropic liquid crystal technology into biomedicine

Guillermo Blanco-Fernandez; Barbara Blanco-Fernandez; Anxo Fernández-Ferreiro; Francisco Otero-Espinar

doi:10.1016/j.tips.2022.03.004

Bringing lipidic lyotropic liquid crystal technology into biomedicine

Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2023 Jan;44(1):7-10. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2022.03.004. Epub 2022 Apr 7.

Authors

Guillermo Blanco-Fernandez¹, Barbara Blanco-Fernandez², Anxo Fernández-Ferreiro³, Francisco Otero-Espinar⁴

Affiliations

¹ Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Paraquasil Group, Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (FIDIS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Institute of Materials (iMATUS), University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
² CIBER in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, CIBER-BBN, Madrid, Spain; Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac 10-12, Barcelona, 08028, Spain. Electronic address: barbara.blanco.fernandez@gmail.com.
³ Pharmacology Group, Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (FIDIS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Pharmacy Department, University Clinical Hospital of Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Electronic address: anxordes@gmail.com.
⁴ Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Paraquasil Group, Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (FIDIS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Institute of Materials (iMATUS), University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Electronic address: francisco.otero@usc.es.

PMID: 35400560
DOI: 10.1016/j.tips.2022.03.004

Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs), discovered more than 130 years ago, are now emerging in the field of biomedicine. This article highlights the recent uses of lipid lyotropic LCs in therapeutics delivery, imaging, and tissue engineering and invites the scientific community to continue exploring the design of more complex LCs.

Keywords: biomedicine; drug delivery; glycerol monooleate; imaging, tissue engineering; lyotropic liquid crystals.

MeSH terms

Humans
Liquid Crystals* / chemistry
Technology