Abstract
Chemotherapy is the routine treatment for cancer despite the poor efficacy and associated off-target toxicity. Furthermore, therapeutic doses of chemotherapeutic agents are limited due to their lack of tissue specificity. Various developments in nanotechnology have been applied to medicine with the aim of enhancing the drug delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. One of the successful developments includes nanoparticles which are particles that range between 1 and 100 nm that may be utilized as drug delivery systems for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer as they overcome the issues associated with chemotherapy; they are highly efficacious and cause fewer side effects on healthy tissues. Other nanotechnological developments include organic nanocarriers such as liposomes which are a type of nanoparticle, although they can deviate from the standard size range of nanoparticles as they may be several hundred nanometres in size. Liposomes are small artificial spherical vesicles ranging between 30 nm and several micrometres and contain one or more concentric lipid bilayers encapsulating an aqueous core that can entrap both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs. Liposomes are biocompatible and low in toxicity and can be utilized to encapsulate and facilitate the intracellular delivery of chemotherapeutic agents as they are biodegradable and have reduced systemic toxicity compared with free drugs. Liposomes may be modified with PEG chains to prolong blood circulation and enable passive targeting. Grafting of targeting ligands on liposomes enables active targeting of anticancer drugs to tumour sites. In this review, we shall explore the properties of liposomes as drug delivery systems for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. Moreover, we shall discuss the various synthesis and functionalization techniques associated with liposomes including their drug delivery, current clinical applications, and toxicology.
Highlights
Cancer, the disease elicited by the uncontrolled division of cells within the body, was responsible for approximately 8 million deaths worldwide in 2007, accounting for 13% of total deaths [1]
Inclusion Criteria. e following features were met by the eligible studies that were incorporated in the current review: articles detected using the aforementioned keyword search, articles containing an adequate amount of information regarding the diverse synthesis and functionalization techniques of liposomes, articles written in the English language, articles that explore the properties of liposomes as drug delivery systems for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and articles that discussed the biomedical application of liposomes
If the target site is beyond the mononuclear-phagocyte system (MPS), clearance of liposomes from the blood circulation by macrophages is unfavourable for conventional liposomes utilized in chemotherapy
Summary
The disease elicited by the uncontrolled division of cells within the body, was responsible for approximately 8 million deaths worldwide in 2007, accounting for 13% of total deaths [1]. Chemotherapeutic agents may lack the adequate stability and solubility characteristics necessary for efficacy at the site of action [7, 8] Solid tumours have both physiological and biological factors that demand the formulation of an effective drug delivery system. E anticancer drug cytosine arabinoside was delivered to mice with L1210 leukaemia within a liposomal formulation, the resulting in vivo activity was improved, and the survival times of the mice were significantly increased [25] For these reasons, liposomes are favoured for their advantageous properties as drug delivery systems for the in vitro and in vivo delivery of biologically active substances [26]. The functionalization techniques, toxicology, and drug delivery of liposomes have been outlined and their clinical application has been explored for cancer treatment and diagnosis. We shall explore the benefits and acknowledge the limitations associated with the utilization of liposomes. e diverse approaches employed for their synthesis and functionalization shall be considered including toxicology studies
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