Immunoliposomes: A Targeted Drug Delivery System for Cancer Therapeutics and Vaccination

Cancer has become one of the world's most lethal and life-threatening disorders, resulting in many deaths. Drug targeting and managing drug delivery are concepts that are implemented to increase a drug's therapeutic index by enhancing its specificity to particular cells, tissues, or organs and reducing its action and harmful side effects. Liposomes have proven to be one of the most innovative drug delivery systems in medicine. Immunoliposomes, also known as antibody-coupled liposomes, have gained a lot of attention as a homing device for targeted therapies. Monoclonal antibodies or antibody fragments that combine with liposomes to create immunoliposomes have been considered a leading technique for targeted delivery. Various functionalization strategies are adopted for the non-covalent and covalent binding of monoclonal antibodies and their components to liposomal surfaces, such as thiolation, amide bonds, hydrazone bonds, and electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonding, etc. for cancer-specific targeting. This provides an overview of various stimulus-responsive immunoliposomes capable of regulating drug release in response to an exogenous magnetic field, changes in temperature or pH, enzyme concentration, endogenous stimuli, and applications of immunoliposomes in vaccination and cancer therapeutics and endogenous immune response stimulation.

Automated summary

Cancer is a deadly disease that causes many deaths. Drug targeting and managing drug delivery systems, such as liposomes, have been developed to improve drug specificity and reduce side effects. Immunoliposomes, created by combining monoclonal antibodies with liposomes, are a leading technique for targeted delivery. Various strategies, such as thiolation and amide bonds, are used for cancer-specific targeting. Stimulus-responsive immunoliposomes have been developed to regulate drug release and have applications in vaccination, cancer therapeutics, and immune response stimulation.