Liposomes and Beyond: Pioneering Vesicular Systems for Drug Delivery

Vesicular drug delivery systems, especially liposomes, have revolutionized the pharmaceutical scenario with massive improvements in drug targeting, bioavailability, and controlled release. We trace the historical development and progress of liposomes as well as other novel vesicular systems such as archaeosomes and glycerosomes in therapeutic applications and present their evolution from liposomes to these advanced systems highlighting their structural differences, strategies for formulation, and potentials for targeted drug delivery. We also outline some of the significant events in the development and commercialization of liposomes and examine a few of the FDA-approved formulations, like Doxil and Ambisome, that exemplify clinical success. Other up-and-coming trends are the use of archaeosomes for vaccine delivery and glycerosomes for topical and oral delivery. The scaling problems, consistency of manufacture, and regulatory problems, however, remain with these liposomal formulations. The paper also ends with the potential in the future of such delivery systems, especially as nano-technology and personalized drugs are being integrated with it thereby indicating a transformative effect in determining the future of drug delivery. In the course of this review, we emphasize continued innovation and optimization in the vesicular drug delivery systems to achieve their full therapeutic potential.