DectiSomes are liposomal drugs that are loaded with antifungal or anticancer components, allowing for more specific delivery of therapeutics in the body. For example, antifungal DectiSomes loaded with Dectin-1 or Dectin-2 are able to bind with the oligoglycans and oligomannans present in fungus, where they then release Amphotericin B, an antifungal drug. This same process occurs with anticancer DectiSomes containing doxorubicin after binding with tumors via Dectin.
Building the DectiSomes
Since the DectiSome visualizations were intended to show its structure and components, it was imperative to construct the liposome as accurately as possible while still using artistic license when needed. This required meticulous research and consult with the content expert.
Numbers and ratios of components of the DectiSomes were provided from research completed by the Lewis Lab at UGA. Some proportions were slightly tweaked, like that of Dectin-2, to prevent occlusion of the other components of the DectiSome.
I started with building a 100 nanometer liposome (cut in half) containing 40,000 phospholipids. Then, I used Cinema4D and Python to create random selections that I used to load the liposome with each “ingredient”.
“Ingredients” – PEG-DHPE, Rhodamine-B, Dectin-2, AmphB, Doxorubicin, cholesterol, and DHPE were all sourced from the RCSB PDB and PubChem. I used the ePMV plugin for Cinema4D to build the course molecular models of each “ingredient”.
Antifungal DectiSome
Anticancer DectiSome
