Utilization of Liposomes for Studying Drug Transfer and Uptake

On entry into the body of the patient, drugs have to overcome many barriers in order to reach the target. The knowledge of the ability of drugs to cross these barriers, which mostly consist of lipid membranes, is of utmost interest in pharmacy. High values of lipophilicity of a drug might be a good pre-requisite for crossing these barriers. It also led liposomologists to think that highly lipophilic drugs may “stick” in the lipophilic interior of liposomal phospholipid membranes and therefore these liposomes may act as a retard formulation of the lipophilic drug. The presented method here estimates the transfer time of lipophilic drugs between liposomal lipid bilayers. This may help to judge the presumed retardation function of a specific liposomal delivery system for a chosen lipophilic drug.