Liposomes

Liposomes are tiny vesicles constructed from materials similar to cell membranes. Liposomes were first described by British hematologist Dr. Alec D. Bangham in 1964 at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. The term “liposome” originates from the Greek words “lipos,” meaning “fat,” and “soma,” meaning “body.” Horne tested the institute's new electron microscope by applying a negative dye to dried phospholipids comprising many concentric lipid bilayers that surround an aqueous compartment. Early formulations only contained natural lipids; today, they may also contain synthetic and/or natural lipids, as well as surfactants. Both lipophilic and hydrophilic substances can be trapped in the lipid membrane and watery core, respectively. These virtually spherical lipid vesicles can be as small as a few nanometres or several micrometres. Most liposomes are 50–450 nm in size ( Bozzuto, and Molinari, 2015 ). Liposomes are favourable as a form of drug delivery due to their excellent biocompatibility, capacity to protect pharmaceuticals or active components, prolonged drug half-life, reduced immunogenicity, lower toxicity, higher efficacy and cell-like membrane structure. Liposomes have thermodynamic advantages because of their ability to self-assemble. The application of liposomes in biomedicine has substantially expanded owing to the structural and surface modifications that have been made based on conventional lipid molecules to create better liposome delivery systems ( Steichan et al., 2013 ; Li et al., 2019 ).