Tuftsin-bearing liposomes in treatment of macrophage-based infections

The use of Liposomes as drug carriers in treatment of various diseases has been explored extensively for more than 20 years. 'Conventional' liposomes, when administered in vivo by a variety of routes, rapidly accumulate in th e mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS). The inherent tendency of the liposome s to concentrate in MPS can be exploited in enhancing the non-specific host defence against infections by entrapping in them the macrophage modulators , and as carriers of antibiotics in treatment of intracellular infections t hat reside in MPS. This must further be enhanced by grafting on the liposom e surface the ligands, e.g. tuftsin, that not only binds specifically to th e MPS cells but also enhances their natural killer activity. Keeping this i n view, we designed and developed tuftsin-bearing liposomes as drug carrier s for the treatment of macrophage-based infections and outline these studie s in this overview. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.