Virosomes-Hybrid Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

The development of safe and effective models for the delivery of any prophylactic or therapeutic agent remains an uphill task for pharmaceutical formulation developers. Drug molecules, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, proteins and a variety of other biological and chemical entities are used for attaining pharmacological benefits. However, the major challenge remains in the delivery of these agents to the specific site of action in a time-efficient manner. Among the many drug delivery systems developed, the nano scale technology of virosomes tends to present an established system of delivering the therapeutic agents to the site of pharmacological action. Virosomes are lipid bilayer, unilamellar structures that present viral protein on their surface. They are safe, biocompatible and biodegradable structures that can achieve ideal pharmacological profile once administered into the body. Tissue targeting, immune activation and potentiation are the chief advantages that make them efficient prophylactic and therapeutic agents. The review presents the biopharmaceutical applications of virosomes and the immunological and pharmaceutical considerations that make them efficient agents for targeting spatiotemporal parameters in the body.

Virosome: An engineered virus for vaccine delivery

“…A fundamental issue related to the liposomal carrier is their speedy clearance by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) ( Krishnamachari et al, 2011 ) . Numerous alterations have been proposed by the scientific community to cope-up with these practical problems, important one is the making a film of PEGs on the surface of liposomes, which can assist the liposomal carriers to work as a stealth carrier, thus, avoiding clearance by RES and hence prolonging the circulation time ( Babar et al, 2013 ) . As it is evident that each component of the virosomal delivery system is synthesized separately and then subsequently assembled into virosomes ( Felnerova et al, 2004 ).…”