Lipospheres

Creative Biolabs provides a range of customized lipid-based drug delivery formulations and the world’s leading services to help researchers harvest projects improvement.

What Are Lipospheres?

Lipospheres, also called lipid microspheres, are solid lipid particles of molecule size between 0.01-100 µm in diameter, consisting of a solid hydrophobic lipid core (triglycerides or fatty acid) containing the drugs, surrounded by a monolayer of phospholipids molecules embedded in their surface. The internal core comprises of the pharmaceutical compounds dissolved or dispersed in the solid lipid matrix. Lipospheres are a class of lipid particulate delivery system with a monolayer of phospholipids embedded in its surface, where they are different from liposomes systems with a bilayer phospholipid. Lipospheres formulations are usually utilized as a new type of lipid based encapsulation system for controlled delivery of hydrophobic drugs, such as anticancer agents, local anesthetics, anti-inflammatory compounds, and even carriers of vaccines and adjuvants, primarily through oral, parenteral and topical administration.

Fig.1 Schematic representation of a liposphere.

Drug Delivery Mechanism of Lipospheres

Lipospheres carriers generally contain two major parts, solid hydrophobic core and phospholipids coating, both of which must be compatible with the inner drugs to be delivered or released. The drug release rate in a controlled pattern is possibly determined by the compositions of the core and more or less by the outer phospholipids layer of the lipospheres system. The fats that commonly chosen for preparation of the hydrophobic core include stearic acid, ethyl stearate, tristearin, and so on, which is finally determined by the delivered active compounds. In terms of outer phospholipids monolayer, it can be one or more phospholipids, steroids, amphiphiles, and surfactants, which may influence the surface properties, aggregation, membrane adhesion, and other reactivities of the lipospheres. Different compositions of solid core and embedded phospholipids lead to different diameters or size range of lipospheres particles, which enable different in vivo distributions, affinities and administered routes for kinds of diseases therapies.

Features of Lipospheres

Lipospheres act as drug carriers and present better physical stability compared with other particulate delivery systems such as liposomes, emulsions, and microspheres. As a newer type encapsulation based on lipids system, lipospheres possess many superiorities as well as several disadvantages, such as:

• The increased physical stability because of avoidance of coalescence
• High solubility and dispersibility of lipophilic molecules in the aqueous system
• High permeability and better oral bioavailability and biocompatibility of the entrapped compounds
• Prolonged release of loaded drug and drug release in a controlled manner
• Limited drug loading capacity for hydrophilic protein

What We Can Do about Lipospheres?

As a type of lipid particulate drug delivery system, lipospheres have been widely applied for delivering the poorly water-soluble drugs. As a biological company providing comprehensive products and services, Creative Biolabs can offer you with a variety of lipospheres as well as other lipid drug carriers formulations either empty or entrapped based on customers’ detailed requirements.

Our advanced technical equipment and high-quality services will help you win the success of novel drug delivery formulations. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

For Research Use Only. Not For Clinical Use