Abstract
The combination of liposomes with polymeric scaffolds could revolutionize the current state of drug delivery technology. Although liposomes have been extensively studied as a promising drug delivery model for bioactive compounds, there still remain major drawbacks for widespread pharmaceutical application. Two approaches for overcoming the factors related to the suboptimal efficacy of liposomes in drug delivery have been suggested. The first entails modifying the liposome surface with functional moieties, while the second involves integration of pre-encapsulated drug-loaded liposomes within depot polymeric scaffolds. This attempts to provide ingenious solutions to the limitations of conventional liposomes such as short plasma half-lives, toxicity, stability, and poor control of drug release over prolonged periods. This review delineates the key advances in composite technologies that merge the concepts of depot polymeric scaffolds with liposome technology to overcome the limitations of conventional liposomes for pharmaceutical applications.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, liposomes have received widespread attention as a carrier system for therapeutically active compounds, due to their unique characteristics such as capability to incorporate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs, good biocompatibility, low toxicity, lack of immune system activation, and targeted delivery of bioactive compounds to the site of action [1,2,3,4]
Liposomes have been extensively studied as promising carriers for therapeutically active compounds, some of the major drawback for liposomes used in pharmaceutics are the rapid degradation due to the reticuloendothelial system (RES) and inability to achieve sustained drug delivery over a prolonged period of time [7]
A study conducted by Stenekes and coworkers [8] reported the success of using temporary depot of polymeric materials to control the release of the loaded liposomes for pharmaceutical applications
Summary
The combination of liposomes with polymeric scaffolds could revolutionize the current state of drug delivery technology. Liposomes have been extensively studied as a promising drug delivery model for bioactive compounds, there still remain major drawbacks for widespread pharmaceutical application. The first entails modifying the liposome surface with functional moieties, while the second involves integration of pre-encapsulated drug-loaded liposomes within depot polymeric scaffolds. This attempts to provide ingenious solutions to the limitations of conventional liposomes such as short plasma half-lives, toxicity, stability, and poor control of drug release over prolonged periods. This review delineates the key advances in composite technologies that merge the concepts of depot polymeric scaffolds with liposome technology to overcome the limitations of conventional liposomes for pharmaceutical applications
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