Utilization of chitosan-caged liposomes to push the boundaries of therapeutic delivery

Liposomes are self-assembled bilayer vesicles which have attracted a great deal of interest as potential carriers for a wide range of therapeutic agents. They have significantly decreased toxicity of drugs while improving or at least maintaining their efficacy. However, their further development has been hampered by their considerable instabilities and, in some cases, providing comparable efficacy to conventional products. Decoration of liposomal nanocarriers with chitosan (CS) and its derivatives has recently gained importance to overcome this obstacle. CS, a cationic polysaccharide, has prompted the continuous impetus for the advent of efficient drug delivery systems owing to its unique characteristics. CS decoration of liposomes confers high mucoadhesion capacity, enhanced carrier permeability, and sterically stabilized properties. The number of examples having been explained within the present review through different administration routes and for various applications clearly heralds the promise of CS caged liposomes for the pharmaceutical market. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.