ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a brief survey of the factors which can influence the behavior and fate of liposomes in vivo when administered by a variety of routes and their implications for liposome targeting. Interest in liposomes has continued to grow as evidenced by the substantial increase in the number of publications and meetings devoted to the subject and by the formation of new companies for commercial development of liposomes as drug delivery systems, vaccines, and diagnostic tools. Targeting of liposomes to a specific cell type in vivo requires successful completion of several independent steps: access to the appropriate target cell, recognition and selective interaction with the target cell with little or no uptake by non target cells. Some of the proposed uses of liposomes as a drug-delivery system, notably drug delivery to the mononuclear phagocyte system, already achieved practical reality.