Role of Liposome as Novel Carrier Molecule

Abstract

Liposomes were discovered by Alec D Bangham in the year 1960.The term liposome means lipid body. They are categorized as a drug delivery system in which drug is targeted to a particular tissue. Liposomes can range from 25nm to 500nm in size. Usually, they have a sphere shape vesicles. They may be having one phospholipid bi- layer or more. They are widely used as drug targeting delivery system because they can penetrate tissues more precisely than free drugs and they have similarity between their lipid bilayer and cell membrane. They are also preferred more because of their drug entrapment efficiency. Liposomes are biocompatible i.e. they are capable to entrap both hydrophilic and lipophilic drug hence they solve the problem of choosing a suitable outer covering layer for the formulation as, they are suitable for both hydrophilic and lipophilic drug molecules. Liposomes are the modern world technology to deliver the drugs to a specific targeted organs or tissue. There exist a lot of methods for preparation of liposomes and they are classified according to their structure and methods of preparation which are discussed in brief in this review article, along with liposome advantages and disadvantages, handling of liposomes, evaluation parameters and liposome applications.