Abstract
Liposomes can be seen as ideal carriers for anti-inflammatory drugs as their ability to (passively) target sites of inflammation and release their content to inflammatory target cells enables them to increase local efficacy with only limited systemic exposure and adverse effects. Nonetheless, few liposomal formulations seem to reach the clinic. The current review provides an overview of the more recent innovations in liposomal treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, vascular inflammation, and transplantation. Cutting edge developments include the liposomal delivery of gene and RNA therapeutics and the use of hybrid systems where several liposomal bilayer features, or several drugs, are combined in a single formulation. The majority of the articles reviewed here focus on preclinical animal studies where proof-of-principle of an improved efficacy–safety ratio is observed when using liposomal formulations. A few clinical studies are included as well, which brings us to a discussion about the challenges of clinical translation of liposomal nanomedicines in the field of inflammatory diseases.
Highlights
The field of nanomedicine has been rapidly expanding over the past decades [1,2,3], and liposomes were the first to reach the clinical application stage
This review summarizes the developments over the past decade in the fields of formulation and application of liposomal drug formulations for the treatment of severe inflammatory diseases, excluding cancer and infectious diseases
Innovations are presented per field and include developments in topical applications, RNA drug delivery, and PUVA therapy in psoriasis; codelivery of drugs and heat-responsive drug release in rheumatoid arthritis; cholesterol vaccination, induction of Tregs, and ultrasound-mediated drug release in vascular inflammation; and treatment of acute graft rejection in transplantation
Summary
The field of nanomedicine has been rapidly expanding over the past decades [1,2,3], and liposomes were the first to reach the clinical application stage. Liposomes have been frontrunners in the field of nanomedicine owing to their nontoxic nature being composed of natural phospholipids, their relatively high drug loading capacity, and their flexibility to be modified in terms of size, charge, and surface features to enable optimal target localization [10]. This arguably renders liposomes the most well-studied nanocarrier for systemic and local drug delivery. Innovations in late-stage animal models and clinical research will be discussed and will be accompanied by an overview of current limitations in clinical translation, in the discussion
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