Antibody-modified liposomes for cancer chemotherapy.
BACKGROUND
Liposomes, phospholipids, nanosized bubbles with a bilayered membrane structure, have drawn a lot of interest as pharmaceutical carriers for drugs and genes. In particular, liposomes are widely used for drug delivery into tumors.


OBJECTIVE
In many cases, to enhance the efficacy of the liposomal drugs, drug-loaded liposomes are targeted to the tumors by means of different specific ligands, such as monoclonal antibodies. Thus, this review analyzes the application of antibody-targeted liposomes loaded with various chemotherapeutic agents and various liposomal products under development at experimental and preclinical level.


METHODS
The papers published on the subject of cancer-targeted liposomes mainly over the last 10 - 15 years are discussed.


CONCLUSIONS
Antibody-targeted liposomes loaded with anticancer drugs demonstrate high potential for clinical applications.
Torchilin
Vladimir
V
Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Nanomedicine, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. v.torchilin@neu.edu