Liposomes in Antiparasitic Drug Carriers

Introduction

Antiparasitic drugs have poor solubility, intestinal absorption rate, and bioavailability due to their insolubility in water and most organic solvents.

Using liposomes as carriers of antiparasitic drugs can reduce toxic and side effects and improve drug efficacy. After human infection with parasites, the number of parasites in the reticuloendothelial tissue is often much higher than in other tissues. The uptake of liposomes in reticuloendothelial phagocytic cells is very high. After encapsulating antiparasitic drugs in liposomes, they can be quickly taken up by reticuloendothelial cells after intravenous injection, and undergo endocytosis and fusion. After the action, the drug is released, and by using this action, the drug can be administered in a targeted manner to treat the parasitic infection in the reticuloendothelial cell tissue, so that the local drug concentration can be increased. Avoid systemic side effects of the drug, to achieve the purpose of high efficiency, low toxicity, and low dose. For example, the liver is an important target organ of liposomes because of the function of phagocytic cells to remove foreign bodies in the blood and the close connection between hepatocytes and blood.

At the same time, the rich nutrient environment of the liver provides a breeding place for many parasites, so using liposomes as carriers to direct drugs to parasites in the liver can reduce toxic and side effects and improve efficacy.

Application

Drugs containing antimony and arsenic are used to kill parasites in the treatment of leishmaniasis, but these drugs are limited by their ability to cause myocarditis and nephritis. If these drugs are encapsulated in liposomes, not only can they effectively kill the parasites, but they can also greatly reduce the toxicity of the drugs and prevent the development of myocarditis and nephritis. In animal experiments, liposomes were able to cure leishmaniasis at 1/1000th of the dose of the free drug. Many kinds of literature indicate that liposomes are not only safe but also more effective if they are encapsulated as liposomes, and that the therapeutic index of liposomal preparations is 30-40 times higher than that of free drugs and the therapeutic dose can be reduced to a few hundredths of a percent. Liposomal drug therapy is also effective, especially in advanced patients who do not respond to free drug therapy. Similarly, the use of liposome-encapsulated anti-malarial drugs, such as quinine or ribonucleic acid drugs, can suppress malaria attacks more effectively than free drugs.

In addition, the drug concentration in oral ABZ capsules is only 0.1%-1% of the blood drug concentration, and only about 30% of cases can achieve clinical cure. ABZ liposomes can significantly inhibit and kill the head segment, inhibit the proliferation of lesions, and cause obvious pathological damage to hydatid disease.