Distearoylphosphatidylcholine is a

phosphatidylcholine Phosphatidylcholines (PC) are a class of phospholipids that incorporate choline as a headgroup. They are a major component of biological membranes and can easily be obtained from a variety of readily available sources, such as egg yolk or soyb ...

, a kind of

phospholipid Phospholipids are a class of lipids whose molecule has a hydrophilic "head" containing a phosphate group and two hydrophobic "tails" derived from fatty acids, joined by an alcohol residue (usually a glycerol molecule). Marine phospholipids typ ...

. It is a natural constituent of

cell membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of a cell from the outside environment (the extr ...

s, eg. soybean phosphatidylcholines are mostly different 18-carbon phosphatidylcholines (including minority of saturated DSPC), and their

hydrogenation Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is commonly employed to redox, reduce or Saturated ...

results in 85% DSPC. It can be used to prepare

lipid nanoparticles Lipid-based nanoparticles are very small spherical particles composed of lipids. They are a novel pharmaceutical drug delivery system (part of nanoparticle drug delivery), and a novel pharmaceutical formulation. There are many subclasses o ...

which are used in mRNA vaccines, In particular, it forms part of the drug delivery system for the

Moderna Moderna, Inc. ( ) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to carry inst ...

and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

References

{{reflist Phosphatidylcholines

See also

References