The team of Prof. Wang Wei from Nankai University and their collaborators worked on the cubosomes in order to reveal the mechanism of formation of bicontinuous cubic-phase structures. The result was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 831-839). They designed and synthesized heteroclusters, which were used to construct cubosomes by solution-self-assembly. They used the small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) of the 1W2A station at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility to confirm the real structure, further observed the formation process of cubosomes and thus elucidated the mechanism of formation of bicontinuous cubic-phase structure. Therefore, the mystery of cubosome formation in lipid assembly studies was unraveled. The key conclusion of this basic research is that when cubosomes are used in the design of drug release, drugs in solution are likely to be first encapsulated in vesicles through molecular assembly and then in cubosomes through subsequent structural transitions. The discoveries of this study will promote the applications of cubosomes in nanomedicin and other frontiers.

Fig. Evolution from HCJDs to faceted cubosomes through different mechanisms

Article:

Hong-Kai Liu, Li-Jun Ren, Han Wu, Yong-Li Ma, Sven Richter, Michael Godehardt,^*Christian Kübel,^* and Wei Wang^*. Unraveling the Self-Assembly of Heterocluster Janus Dumbbellsinto Hybrid Cubosomes with Internal Double-Diamond Structure. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 831-839.