Title:Liposomal Nanotechnology for Cancer Theranostics
VOLUME: 25 ISSUE: 12
Author(s):Xiuli Yue and Zhifei Dai*
Affiliation:School of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871
Keywords:Liposomes, cerasomes, cancer theranostics, drug delivery, contrast enhanced imaging, drug nanocarrier.
Abstract:Liposomes are a type of biomimetic nanoparticles generated from self-assembling
concentric lipid bilayer enclosing an aqueous core domain. They have been attractive nanocarriers
for the delivery of many drugs (e.g. radiopharmaceuticals, chemotherapeutic agents,
porphyrin) and diagnostic agents (e.g. fluorescent dyes, quantum dots, Gadolinium complex
and Fe3O4) by encapsulating (or adsorbing) hydrophilic one inside the liposomal aqueous core
domain (or on the bilayer membrane surface), and by entrapping hydrophobic one within the
liposomal bilayer. Additionally, the liposome surface can be easily conjugated with targeting
molecules. Liposomes may accumulate in cancerous tissues not only passively via enhanced
permeability and retention (EPR) effect, but also actively by targeting cancer cell or angiogenic
marker specifically. The multimodality imaging functionalization of liposomal therapeutic
agents makes them highly attractive for individualized monitoring of the in vivo cancer
targeting and pharmacokinetics of liposomes loading therapeutic drugs, and predicting therapeutic
efficacy in combination with the helpful information from each imaging technique. The
present review article will highlight some main advances of cancer theranostic liposomes with
a view to activate further research in the nanomedicine community.
