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Theranostics Based on Liposome: Looking Back and Forward

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Abstract

Liposome is one of the oldest yet most successful nanomedicine platforms. Doxil®, PEGylated liposome loaded with doxorubicin (DOX), was approved by the FDA in 1995 for the treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma, and it was the first approval for nanomedicine. Since then, liposome-based therapeutics were approved for the treatment of various diseases and many clinical trials are underway. The success of the liposome-based therapeutics was due to following factors: (1) ease of synthesis, (2) biocompatibility, (3) the ability to load both hydrophilic and hydrophobic agents, and (4) long circulation property after application of polyethylene glycol (PEG). Recently, more functionalities are introduced to liposome platform, which are (1) in vivo imaging probes for optical, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), (2) pH and temperature-sensitive lipid moiety, and (3) novel agents for photodynamic and photothermal therapies (PDT, PTT). These conventional and newly tested advantages make the liposome to be one of the most promising nanoplatforms for theranostics.

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Funding

This study was supported by Research Resettlement Fund for the new faculty of Seoul National University, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03035556 and NRF-2019M2D2A1A01058210), and the Ministry of Health and Welfare Korea (HI18C0886 and HI19C0339).

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  1. Department of Transdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Wooseung Lee & Hyung-Jun Im

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  1. Wooseung Lee
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Correspondence to Hyung-Jun Im.

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Wooseung Lee and Hyung-Jun Im declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Lee, W., Im, HJ. Theranostics Based on Liposome: Looking Back and Forward. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 53, 242–246 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-019-00603-z

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