BILOSOME: A BILE SALT BASED NOVEL CARRIER SYSTEM GAINING INTEREST IN PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH

Abstract

The human body has long provided pharmaceutical science with biomaterials of interesting applications. Bile salts (BSs) are biomaterials reminiscent of traditional surfactants with peculiar structure and self-assembled topologies. Most of the new drugs, biological therapeutics (proteins/peptides) and vaccines have poor performance after oral administration due to poor solubility or degradation in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Though, vesicular carriers exemplified by liposomes or niosomes can protect the entrapped agent to a certain extent from degradation. Nevertheless, the harsh GIT environment i.e, low pH, the presence of bile salts and enzymes limits their capabilities by destabilizing them. In response to that, more resistant bile salts-containing vesicles (BS-vesicles) were developed by the inclusion of bile salts into lipid bilayers constructs. Tremendous research in the last decade has made bilosomes a potential carrier system. Bilosomes with its name derived from bile salts (which is one of its major constituents), is a ‘niosome-like’ colloidal carrier. Here, we focus on different aspects of bile salt based drug delivery systems including their composition, developmental techniques, characterization, comparative advantages of BS-integrated nanomedicines over conventional nanocarriers, stability, transitional modifications and scale-up – emphasizing their biomedical potential in oral immunization against various diseases and delivery of peptide drugs. Bile acid-based amphiphiles, in the form of mixed micelles, bilosomes, drug conjugates and hybrid lipid-polymer nanoparticles are critically discussed as delivery systems for anticancer drugs, antimicrobial agents and therapeutic peptides/proteins, including vaccines. Current pitfalls, future perspectives, and opinions have also been outlined. Bile acid-based nanoparticles are a growing research area therefore, multifaceted pharmaceutical and biomedical applications of bile salts are to be expected in the near future. Key words: Bile acids, bilosomes, vaccines, protein and peptides, bile salt containing liposomes, M-cellÂ