Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) is a polyphenol found in various plants, especially in the skin of red grapes. The effect of resveratrol on human health is the topic of numerous studies. In fact this molecule has shown anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, blood-sugar-lowering ability and beneficial cardiovascular effects. However, for many polyphenol compounds of natural origin bioavailability is limited by low solubility in biological fluids, as well as by rapid metabolization in vivo. Therefore, appropriate carriers are required to obtain efficient therapeutics along with low administration doses. Liposomes are excellent candidates for drug delivery purposes, due to their biocompatibility, wide choice of physico-chemical properties and easy preparation. In this paper liposome formulations made by a saturated phosphatidyl-choline (DPPC) and cholesterol (or its positively charged derivative DC-CHOL) were chosen to optimize the loading of a rigid hydrophobic molecule such as resveratrol. Plain and resveratrol loaded liposomes were characterized for size, surface charge and structural details by complementary techniques, i.e. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Zeta potential and Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). Nuclear and Electron Spin magnetic resonances (NMR and ESR, respectively) were also used to gain information at the molecular scale. The obtained results allowed to give an account of loaded liposomes in which resveratrol interacted with the bilayer, being more deeply inserted in cationic liposomes than in zwitterionic liposomes. Relevant properties such as the mean size and the presence of oligolamellar structures were influenced by the loading of RESV guest molecules. The toxicity of all these systems was tested on stabilized cell lines (mouse fibroblast NIH-3T3 and human astrocytes U373-MG), showing that cell viability was not affected by the administration of liposomial resveratrol.

Nanovectors, such as liposomes, micelles and lipid nanoparticles, are recognized as efficient platforms for delivering therapeutic agents, especially those with low solubility in water. Besides being safe and non-toxic, drug carriers with improved performance should meet the requirements of (i) appropriate size and shape and (ii) cargo upload/release with unmodified properties. Structural issues are of primary importance to control the mechanism of action of loaded vectors. Overall properties, such as mean diameter and surface charge, can be obtained using bench instruments (Dynamic Light Scattering and Zeta potential). However, techniques with higher space and time resolution are needed for in-depth structural characterization. Small-angle X-ray (SAXS) and neutron (SANS) scattering techniques provide information at the nanoscale and have therefore been largely used to investigate nanovectors loaded with drugs or other biologically relevant molecules. Here we revise recent applications of these complementary scattering techniques in the field of drug delivery in pharmaceutics and medicine with a focus to liposomal carriers. In particular, we highlight those aspects that can be more commonly accessed by the interested users.

Long-range chemical communication takes place over micrometer distance within different biological organisms and biomimetic chemical micro-compartments). A proper model for studying this phenomenon could rely on three features, namely (i) the compartmentalization of chemical information (using microfluidics), (ii) a stable emitter of periodic chemical signals inside compartments (Belousov–Zhabotinsky oscillating reaction) and (iii) a suitable spatio-temporal monitoring of the emitted chemical signal. In this paper we study chemical transmission across the interface between two immiscible liquids, eventually in the presence of lipid, by local electrochemical probing. We show that chemical information is transmitted either by direct transfer of redox active species and or by interfacial electron transfer. Insights obtained by electrochemical measurements, together with numerical simulations, are then used to transpose the communication across a phospholipid bilayer among oscillators compartmentalized in liposomes and dispersed in a water medium. The procedure for the successful generation of these cell-like compartments through microfluidics is reported here for the first time.