Targeted Liposomal Drug Delivery in Cancer

Abstract

Liposomes, which are biodegradable and essentially non-toxic vehicles, can encapsulate both hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials, and are utilized as drug carriers in drug delivery systems. In addition, liposomes can be used to carry radioactive compounds as radiotracers can be linked to multiple locations in liposomes. One option is the hydrated compartment inside the liposome, another the lipid core into which especially hydrophobic conjugates can be attached, and the third option is the outer lipid leaflet where molecules can be bound by covalent linkage. Delivery of agents to the reticuloendothelial system (RES) is easily achieved, since most conventional liposomes are trapped by the RES. For the purpose of delivery of agents to target organs other than RES, long-circulating liposomes have been developed by modifying the liposomal surface. Understanding of the in vivo dynamics of liposome-carried agents is required for the evaluation of the bioavailability of drugs encapsulated in liposomes. In this review, we focus on the in vivo trafficking of liposomes visualized by positron emission tomography (PET) and discuss the characteristics of liposomes that affect the targeting of drugs in vivo.

Bio-distribution, toxicity and pathology of cowpea mosaic virus nanoparticles in vivo

“…One such effort is to create targeted nanodevices with multifunctional capabilities to enable early diagnosis and offer superior treatment of diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Strategies being developed to generate "smart" tissue-specific nanoparticles or nanodevices include the use of nanospheres, semiconductor quantum dots, dextrans, liposomes, antibodies, dendrimers, or viral particles [1,8,14,15,26 , 33 , 36 ,38,40,41,52]. These formulations are often comprised of targeting moieties along with cytotoxic drugs and/or imaging agents.…”

An insight on the role of photosensitizer nanocarriers for Photodynamic Therapy

“…Liposomes are found to be one of the most efficient vehicles to carry hydrophobic molecules in aqueous medium (Bader et al 1984, Medina et al 2004. They are vesicles with one or more concentric phospholipid bilayer(s), making them biocompatible due to their lipid composition (Figure 3a and 3b).…”

“…All these properties make this type of systems effective vehicles for the delivery of drugs in PDT (Banerjee 2001, Chen et al 2005, Sneider et al 2017. Certain improvements in liposomal technology and molecular biology have been done, allowing them to have targeting power in order to achieve selective delivery to specific biological targets (Medina et al 2004). In fact, the accumulation of liposomes in the tumor tissue is mostly due to the leakage of tumor blood vessels and also to the impairment of the lymphatic systems exhibited by most tumor tissues (Jain 2001).…”

Nanotechnology in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

“…Delivery of agents to the RES (reticuloendothelial system) is easily achieved, since most conventional liposomes are trapped by the RES. For the purpose of delivery of agents to target organs other than RES, long-circulating liposomes have been developed by modifying the liposomal surface [64]. In a recent study 64 Cu-radiolabeled folate-conjugated SCKs (shell cross-linked nanoparticles) were evaluated as candidate agents to shuttle radionuclides and drugs into tumors [65].…”