Aggregative Stability of Nanoemulsions in eLiposomes: Analysis of the Results of Mathematical Simulation

Abstract—: At present, hybrid multicompartment carriers for drug delivery have been actively developed; eLiposomes are one such carrier. Due to the complex structure of eLiposomes, which are nanoemulsion droplets surrounded by a phospholipid bilayer, such systems can be used to deliver hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and amphiphilic compounds simultaneously. For the efficient applications, nanoemulsions should be stable in the confined space inside liposomes. In this work, Langevin-dynamics simulation has been employed to study the stability of nanoemulsions with different ζ-potential and various fractions of the dispersed phase. Calculation results have shown that, at low values of the ζ-potential, stable nanoemulsions are formed if a dispersed phase fraction is ≤10 vol %. To produce stable nanoemulsions with higher fractions of the dispersed phase, the absolute value of the ζ-potential of the dispersed phase droplets should be higher than 40 mV. At the same time, the stability of nanoemulsions with both low and high ζ-potentials of the droplets greatly provided by intense Brownian motion of droplets in the internal space of eLiposomes.