Harnessing Nanoscale Confinement to Design Sterically Stable Vesicles of Specific Shapes via Self-Assembly

Advances in self-assembling of pH-sensitive polymers: A mini review on dissipative particle dynamics

Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) is a mesoscopic simulation program used to simulate the behavior of complex fluids. This work systematically reviews the use of DPD to simulate the self-assembly process of pH-sensitive drug-loaded nanoparticles. pH-sensitive drug-loaded nanoparticles have the characteristics of good targeting and slow release in the body, which is an ideal method for treating cancer and other diseases. As an excellent simulation method, DPD can help people explore the loading and release laws of drugs with complex molecular structures and has extensive applications in other medical fields. This article reviews the self-assembly process of pH-sensitive polymers under neutral conditions and explores the factors that affect the self-assembly structure. It points out that different hydrophilic-hydrophobic ratios, molecular structures, and component distributions will affect the morphology, stability and drug carrying capacity of micelles. This article also introduces the release mechanism of the drug in detail and introduces the factors that affect the release. This article can help relevant researchers to follow the latest advances in the DPD simulation and pH-sensitive drug nano-carrier and insight people to investigate the further application of DPD simulation in biomedical science.

Designing phenylalanine-based hybrid biological materials: controlling morphology via molecular composition

Harnessing the self-assembly of peptide sequences has demonstrated great promise in the domain of creating high precision shape-tunable biomaterials. The unique properties of peptides allow for a building block approach to material design. In this study, self-assembly of mixed systems encompassing two peptide sequences with identical hydrophobic regions and distinct polar segments is investigated. The two peptide sequences are diphenylalanine and phenylalanine-asparagine-phenylalanine. The study examines the impact of molecular composition (namely, the total peptide concentration and the relative tripeptide concentration) on the morphology of the self-assembled hybrid biological material. We report a rich polymorphism in the assemblies of these peptides and explain the relationship between the peptide sequence, concentration and the morphology of the supramolecular assembly.

Flow-Induced Shape Reconfiguration, Phase Separation, and Rupture of Bio-Inspired Vesicles

The structural integrity of red blood cells and drug delivery carriers through blood vessels is dependent upon their ability to adapt their shape during their transportation. Our goal is to examine the role of the composition of bio-inspired multicomponent and hairy vesicles on their shape during their transport through in a channel. Through the dissipative particle dynamics simulation technique, we apply Poiseuille flow in a cylindrical channel. We investigate the effect of flow conditions and concentration of key molecular components on the shape, phase separation, and structural integrity of the bio-inspired multicomponent and hairy vesicles. Our results show the Reynolds number and molecular composition of the vesicles impact their flow-induced deformation, phase separation on the outer monolayer due to the Marangoni effect, and rupture. The findings from this study could be used to enhance the design of drug delivery and tissue engineering systems.

Spontaneous onion shape vesicle formation and fusion of comb-like block copolymers studied by dissipative particle dynamics

The formation of an onion shape vesicle.

Boundary-induced segregation in nanoscale thin films of athermal polymer blends

The surface segregation of binary athermal polymer blends confined in a nanoscale thin film was investigated by dissipative particle dynamics. The polymer blend included linear/linear, star/linear, bottlebrush/linear, and rod-like/linear polymer systems. The segregation was driven by purely entropic effects and two different mechanisms were found. For the linear/linear and star/linear polymer blends, the smaller sized polymers were preferentially segregated to the boundary because their excluded volumes were smaller than those of the matrix polymers. For the bottlebrush/linear and rod-like/linear polymer blends, the polymers with a larger persistent length were preferentially segregated to the boundary because they favored staying in the depletion zone by alignment with the wall. Our simulation outcome was consistent with experimental results and also agreed with theoretical predictions - that is, a surface excess dictated by the chain ends for the branch/linear system. These consequences are of great importance in controlling the homogeneity and surface properties of polymer blend thin films.