Liposomes encapsulating artificial cytosol as drug delivery system

The fabrication of cell model containing artificial cytosol is challenging. Herein we constructed an artificial cytosol contained cell model by electroformation method. Agarose was selected as the main component of the artificial cytosol. Sucrose was added into agarose to regulate the sol viscosity and phase transition temperature (Tm). The viscosity of the sol with the mass ratio (agarose-sucrose) 1:9 was closest to the natural cytosolic. DSPC/20 mol% Chol was used to form large unilamellar vesicle (LUV) as cell model compartment. The rhodamine release experiment confirmed that the unique release profile of agarose-sucrose@LUVs suitable as a drug carrier. Doxorubicin (DOX) is loaded in the agarosesucrose@LUVs, and their half maximum inhibition concentration on HeLa cells is 0.016 μmol L−1, which means 28.7 times increase in inhibition efficiency over free DOX.