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Pharma Tech Outlook | Tuesday, November 03, 2020
Self-propelled liposomes pave the way for self-directed drug delivery vehicles to actively target a specific area in the body
FREMONT, CA: Researchers have recently developed a broad spectrum of drug delivery vehicles to overcome the shortcomings of conventional drug therapies. Their focus is on increasing the drug accumulation at a target site while reducing side effects in the other parts of the body. Some recent developments include biomaterials, nanoparticles and implantable devices. One of the stunning innovations includes the self-propelled liposomes that can migrate towards or away from chemical signals depending on the need. Thus, it enables self-directed drug delivery vehicles to target a specific area in the body. However, specificity and affinity of a drug delivery vehicle matter the most for a target tissue.
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Generally, liposomes intended for drug delivery are mostly tissue-specific owing to the presence of antibodies on the surface that binds to the target tissue whenever they acknowledge it. Because these particles do not have a way to make their way to target tissue actively, they are randomly carried out throughout the body. In the newly developed liposome-based mechanism, the developed liposome can actively migrate itself towards a chemical signal in the body, for example, a chemical attractant released by the target tissue. These liposomes are enclosed in enzymes that react with particular substrates to release energy which can drive the forward propulsion of the liposomes by a phenomenon called chemotaxis. However, by modifying the enzymes coating the liposomes, researchers can fine-tune chemotaxis mechanism and allow the particles to either propel towards or away from the signal source. Thus, helping the particles gravitate towards specific tissues and avoiding others in the body.
Here, researchers place the enzyme-coated liposomes in a microfluidic device that maintains a gradient of either the enzyme’s reactant or its products and then measure the movement of the liposomes towards or away from specific chemicals. The liposomes are still under study that researchers are developing liposomes that can effectively carry the drug and deliver it. Also, the interior of the liposomes used can be filled with a payload and scientists are now getting closer to finely controlling their movement.
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