Friday 12 July 2013

The Many Uses Of Liposomes

By Carmella Watts


Each day, researchers are finding more effective drug therapies that combat diseases better than anything that came before. The trick was to devise a way to actually deliver them into the body in such a way that they perform at their optimum. Liposomes are a great dispersal system because of their versatile function and close resemblance to cells created in nature.

Each human cell is protected by a membrane that is made up of tiny little parts called phospholipids. These are three part molecules consisting of a single head and two independent tails. Despite the fact that liposomes are products of laboratory creation, their uncanny resemblance to the natural makeup of cells gives them the ability to assimilate with less chance of attack by the immune system.

A big factor in why this molecule is so important to all the various fields of both scientific and medical research is its triple part construction. The top part is a hydrophilic head that is both attracted to and soluble in water. The tails are just the opposite, being hydrophobic and built by two long chains of essential fatty acid hydrocarbons.

First discovered in 1961 by Alec Bangham, a British researcher who was studying blood clotting, liposomes were quick to capture scientific interest. He realized that when phospholipids were placed in water, they automatically grouped together into bi-layered spheres. The inner and outer edges are formed by the hydrophilic heads and the center layer is created by the tail sections of the molecules pushing against each other.

This formation lends them the necessary qualities to become the effective delivery system that they are. The virtually perfect resemblance between their membrane and that of those created by nature, helps to protect them from being attacked by the immune defenses as foreign matter. Being nano sized, they are generally assimilated quickly into the blood and easily accepted by like cells.

These nano sized bubbles are called vesicles and have the ability to be filled with many varied substances such as genetic material, medications or even vitamins. When introduced to the blood, they immediately seek out the targeted cells and meld with them. This characteristic is another reason they are such valuable tools.

To avoid medications and therapies from inadvertently damaging vulnerable organs such as the lungs, liver or kidneys through unnecessary exposure, researchers have found a way to protect them. They have discovered that decorating the spheres with the molecules of the target cell group will make it so that they are repelled by all others. Once they have located their likeness, they meld together and deliver the new material to the body.

Liposomes are extremely valuable tools in the medical field but they also have importance in other areas of scientific research and various practical applications. Ways are in development that will allow them to bring pesticides to exclusively to specific plants, leaving people and surrounding flora unharmed. Cosmetics have already started including them in their formulas for a more effective delivery of moisturizers and vitamins directly to the skin cells.




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