ABSTRACT
Liposomes are microscopic lipid bubbles designed to entrap drugs. A method has been developed to target drugs locally in the eye via a light-based mechanism. The method, called laser-targeted delivery (LTD), consists of encapsulating a drug in heat-sensitive liposomes, injecting them intravenously, and releasing their content at the site of choice by noninvasively warming up the targeted tissue with a laser pulse directed through the pupil of the eye. A fundus camera was modified to provide video angiograms and to deliver one laser beam used to release the content of the liposomes and another laser beam to activate the photosensitizer. A fundus camera was modified to provide video angiograms and to deliver one laser beam used to release the content of the liposomes and another laser beam to activate the photosensitizer. Intravenously administered liposomes are in use today in humans for cancer chemotherapy, as vehicles for delivery of immunomodulators, and for gene therapy.
