Manipulation of macrophage activities using liposomes

Macrophages are of critical importance in a variety of pathological conditi ons and selective manipulation of macrophage functions may offer new possib ilities for therapy. At present, the signalling pathways that control the d ifferent activities of macrophages, including phagocytosis and inflammatory mediator production, are being resolved and selective (ant)agonists of the relevant signalling components will gradually become available. However, t he activities of such signalling components are generally not restricted to macrophages and this may result in undesirable effects. We suggest that li posomes may overcome these problems by allowing the selective targeting of drugs to the interior of the macrophage in vivo.