Membrane Fusion Biophysical Analysis of Fusogenic Liposomes

Liposomes represent important drug carrier vehicles in biological systems. A fusogenic liposomal system composed of equimolar mixtures of the cationic lipid DOTAP and the phospholipid DOPE showed high fusion and delivery efficiencies with cells and lipid vesicles. However, aspects of the thermodynamics involving the interaction of these fusogenic liposomes and biomimetic systems remain unclear. Here, we investigate the fusion of this system with large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) composed of the zwitterionic lipid POPC and increasing fractions of the anionic lipid POPG and up to 30 mol % cholesterol. The focus here is to concomitantly follow changes in size, zeta-potential, and enthalpy binding upon membrane interaction and fusion. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) data showed that membrane fusion in our system is an exothermic process in the absence of cholesterol, suggesting that electrostatic attraction is the driving force for fusion. An endothermic component appeared and eventually dominated the titration at 30 mol % cholesterol, which we propose is caused by membrane fluidification when cholesterol is diluted upon fusion. The inflection points of the ITC data occurred around 0.5–0.7 POPG/DOTAP for all systems, the same stoichiometry for which zeta-potential and dynamic light scattering measurements showed an increase in size coupled with charge neutralization of the system, which is consistent with the fact that fusion in our system is charge-mediated. Microscopy observations of the final mixtures revealed the presence of giant vesicles, which is a clear indication of fusion, coexisting with intermediate-sized objects that could be the result of both fusion and/or aggregation. The results show that the fusion efficiency of the DOTAP:DOPE fusogenic system is modulated by the charge and membrane packing of the acceptor membrane and explain why the system fuses very efficiently with cells.