Huateng Pharma
https://us.huatengsci.com
Lipid-Based Nanoparticles: Liposomes VS. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) Lipid-based formulations have contributed to significant achievements in drug development and the delivery of therapeutic biomolecules and genes. One common misconception is that liposomes and LNPs are interchangeable terms. They are similar ─ and both can be effective for drug delivery ─ but are different in composition and function. Lipid-Based Nanoparticles: Liposomes VS. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) Lipid based nanoparticles, such as liposomes and solid lipid nanoparticles, can be used to package drugs for topical, oral, intravenous or pulmonary routes of administration. The first FDA-approved lipid-based drug formulation, Doxil®, an antitumor antibiotic, was marketed in 1995. Since then, more than a dozen additional FDA-approved therapeutics have been marketed for cancer, gene therapy, antiviral vaccines, fungal diseases, analgesia and photodynamic therapy. Hundreds more are in clinical trials and are even authorized for emergency use - as in the case of Pfizer and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, the greatest progress has been made in the area of nucleic acid delivery, involving the encapsulation of short interfering RNA (siRNA), microRNA (miRNA), short activating RNA (saRNA) or messenger RNA (mRNA) in lipid nanoparticles for gene silencing or activation and protein production. Liposomes were first described by the British hematologist Dr. Alec D Bangham in 1964 (Published 1964), at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. Liposomes are self-assembled closed spherical structures composed of one or more amphipathic phospholipid bilayers and an internal aqueous core, ranging in size between 20 and ∼1000 nm. The core–shell nanostructure of liposomes makes them suitable for loading both hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules. Normally, hydrophobic drugs are encapsulated in the lipophilic bilayers of the shell, and hydrophilic drugs are to be entrapped in the aqueous phase of the core, making liposomes a versatile drug delivery platform. Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are very similar in basic physical structure of liposomes. Their liposome-like structures especially geared towards encapsulating a broad variety of nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) and as such, they are the most popular non-viral gene delivery system. There are three main differences between liposomes and lipid nanoparticles.