As a class of crucially important biomolecules, phospholipids are key building blocks of cytomembrane and play indispensable roles in a variety of life activities, such as cell activation, metabolism maintenance, hormone secretion, and so on. There are a variety of phospholipids, most of which display remarkable advantages in strong self-assembly ability, excellent biocompatibility, no cytotoxicity and easy availability. As the most typical interfacial materials, the unique bilayer structures and outstanding biological performances of phospholipid membranes have attracted researchers' interests, which provide an excellent platform to investigate molecular characteristics and interfacial interactions on cell membranes. In addition, phospholipids can be also used as biomedical materials. Various chemically modified phospholipids and phospholipid-nanoparticle composites display good prospects for development in biomedical fields of tumor imaging technology and drug targeting delivery, which greatly promotes the development of new-generation biomaterials. In this review, the classification of phospholipids has been summarized and their adsorption behaviors on different substrates are also discussed. Then special interests are placed on selective recognition capacities of the phospholipid bilayers and the interfacial interactions between phospholipid bilayers and various biomolecules, such as peptides, enzymes and proteins. Finally, the enticing prospects of phospholipid-based biomaterials in bio-sensing, drug research and bio-imaging technology are demonstrated.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Classification of phospholipids
2.1 Natural phospholipids
2.2 Synthetic phospholipids
2.3 Phospholipid-based composites
3 Assembly behaviors of phospholipids on different surfaces
3.1 Mica surface
3.2 Silicon dioxide surface
3.3 Gold surface
3.4 Thiolated gold surface
4 Effect of phospholipid bilayers on biomolecules
4.1 Selective recognition at biointerface
4.2 Effect on self-assembly of peptide
4.3 Effect on enzyme catalysis
4.4 Effect on protein
5 Bio-applications of phospholipids
5.1 Bio-sensing
5.2 Drug targeted transport
5.3 Biological imaging technology
5.4 Drug release
6 Conclusion