This invention is a new type of lipid vesicle or liposome that can be used to encapsulate drugs and genes for therapeutic applications. It improves upon existing liposome formulations in its increased stability, subsequent increased circulation time, and effectiveness as a nanocarrier.
Background: For many years, therapeutic drugs were released in an uncontrolled and untargeted manner. This often resulted in drastic side effects, most dramatically exemplified by the side effects of chemotherapy treatment. Much research has been conducted to create more advanced systems for drug delivery that allow for controlled release of the therapeutic payload, with better control of temporal and spatial distribution of the drug. One such advancement in the field of advanced drug delivery systems has been the liposome, or lipid vesicle. Liposomes consist of one or more bilayers of lipid molecules that form a shell with an empty core when dispersed in a liquid medium such as water or blood. They have been used to encapsulate drugs and deliver them at controlled rates to specific targets in the human body, but have conventionally been prone to many issues such as instability, leading to unsatisfactory release kinetics and circulation times. The technology has implements a liposome based nanoparticle that will improve upon the current technologies.
Cholesterol has been included in liposome formulations because it helps to stabilize the lipid membrane, but it is prone to transfer from the liposome into other biomembranes, lipoproteins, and lipid vesicles, which again destabilizes the liposome. The inventors have discovered innovative way to prevent cholesterol transfer from the bilayer and increase stability.
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