ABSTRACT
Pharmaceutical nanotechnologies and their application in medicine are a rapidly growing area of research. This expanding eld has provided the opportunity to design and develop numerous nanosized carriers that can target, treat, and diagnose a range of diseases. A number of pharmaceutical nanocarriers, including hydrogels, micelles, dendrimers, liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, nanotubes, and polymersomes, have been developed for the delivery of therapeutic or diagnostic agents (Torchilin 2006, Thassu et al. 2007). The most common and well-investigated nanocarriers are liposomes, articial phospholipid vesicles with sizes varying from 50 to 1000 nm and greater. These lipid-based nanocarriers can be loaded with a variety of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs (Lasic 1993). Owing to their excellent properties of biocompatibility, biodegradability, low toxicity, and immunogenicity, liposomes have attracted much attention as pharmaceutical carriers with great potential (Klibanov et al. 1990a). The growing number of liposomal formulations on the market or currently under clinical evaluation provides evidence of their vast potential (Immordino et al. 2006, Torchilin 2005).
