Designing of 'intelligent' liposomes for efficient delivery of drugs.
The liposome- vesicles made by a double phospholipid layers which may encapsulate aqueous solutions- have been introduced as drug delivery vehicles due to their structural flexibility in size, composition and bilayer fluidity as well as their ability to incorporate a large variety of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds. With time the liposome formulations have been perfected so as to serve certain purposes and this lead to the design of "intelligent" liposomes which can stand specifically induced modifications of the bilayers or can be surfaced with different ligands that guide them to the specific target sites. We present here a brief overview of the current strategies in the design of liposomes as drug delivery carriers and the medical applications of liposomes in humans.
Voinea
Manuela
M
"N Simionescu" Institute of Cellular Biology and Pathology, Bucharest, Romania. mvoinea@simionescu.instcellbiopath.ro
Simionescu
Maya
M
D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000188:drug therapy; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D014612:Vaccines
D008081:Liposomes; D014612:Vaccines