Emerging Research and Clinical Development Trends of Liposome and Lipid Nanoparticle Drug Delivery Systems

Abstract

Liposomes are spherical-enclosed membrane vesicles mainly constructed with lipids. Lipid nanoparticles are loaded with therapeutics and may not contain an enclosed bilayer. The majority of those clinically approved have diameters of 50–300 nm. The growing interest in nanomedicine has fueled lipid–drug and lipid–protein studies, which provide a foundation for developing lipid particles that improve drug potency and reduce off-target effects. Integrating advances in lipid membrane research has enabled therapeutic development. At present, about 600 clinical trials involve lipid particle drug delivery systems. Greater understanding of pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and disposition of lipid–drug particles facilitated particle surface hydration technology (with polyethylene glycol) to reduce rapid clearance and provide sufficient blood circulation time for drug to reach target tissues and cells. Surface hydration enabled the liposome-encapsulated cancer drug doxorubicin (Doxil) to gain clinical approval in 1995. Fifteen lipidic therapeutics are now clinically approved. Although much research involves attaching lipid particles to ligands selective for occult cells and tissues, preparation procedures are often complex and pose scale-up challenges. With emerging knowledge in drug target and lipid–drug distribution in the body, a systems approach that integrates knowledge to design and scale lipid–drug particles may further advance translation of these systems to improve therapeutic safety and efficacy.

Extracellular vesicles as a platform for membrane‐associated therapeutic protein delivery

“…Compared to EVs, it is more difficult to add soluble domains to synthetic lipid nanoparticles because peptide ligands affect the stability and material properties of lipid-based nanoparticles and increase the complexity of their synthesis [64,65]. A related approach in which liposomes containing NTA-Ni lipids were used to display histidine-tagged proteins failed due to low dissociation constants associated with unstable immobilization [66,67].…”

Microfluidic synthesis of multifunctional liposomes for tumour targeting

“…Liposomes have been studied extensively in the past decades because of their superior properties over other nanosystems, such as non-toxicity, non-immunogenicity, and good biocompatibility and biodegradability. By 2014, fifteen lipid-based therapeutics have gained clinical approval, such as Doxil [1], DaunoXome, etc., for the treatment of cancer, fungi, microbes, analgesia, etc., and more are undergoing clinical trials [2]. Different methods have been developed for producing liposomes, such as thin-film hydration, freeze-drying, detergent depletion and alcohol injection [3].…”

pH-sensitive micelles self-assembled from polymer brush (PAE-<em>g</em>-cholesterol)-<em>b</em>-PEG-<em>b</em>-(PAE-<em>g</em>-cholesterol) for anticancer drug delivery and controlled release

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11] Compared with these nanoscale carriers, polymeric micelles self-assembled from amphiphilic polymers have captured increasing attention. [12][13][14] Polymeric micelles used as hydrophobic anticancer drug carriers have been proved to have a multitude of advantages, such as a convenient synthesis, high drug loading capacity and biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity, efficient drug delivery, and controlled release.…”