Designing and building the next generation of improved vaccine adjuvants.

Vaccine adjuvants interact with the immune system, to increase the potency of vaccine antigens. Many of the adjuvants currently available were developed with little understanding of how they worked. Highly pure recombinant antigens are typically very poorly immunogenic due to a lack of exogenous immune activating components such as nucleic acids, lipids, and cell membrane components. In this review we discuss the role of adjuvants and their role as 'delivery systems' or 'immune potentiators'. We also highlight the need for appropriate delivery of immune potentiators with several 'delivery system' adjuvants such as alum, emulsions, liposomes, and polymeric particles. The challenges faced by vaccinologists to create the next generation of vaccines can be solved in-part by developing a greater understanding of the impact of delivery, and an appreciation of the key role of pharmaceutical sciences.

Lipid vesicles for skin delivery of drugs: reviewing three decades of research.

Since liposomes were first shown to be of potential value for topical therapy by Mezei and Gulasekharam in 1980, studies continued towards further investigation and development of lipid vesicles as carriers for skin delivery of drugs. Despite this long history of intensive research, lipid vesicles are still considered as a controversial class of dermal and transdermal carriers. Accordingly, this article provides an overview of the development of lipid vesicles for skin delivery of drugs, with special emphasis on recent advances in this field, including the development of deformable liposomes and ethosomes.

Liposomes as protein carriers in immunology.

Liposomes are excellent carriers for protein antigens since they can contain large amounts of antigen, potentially in association with adjuvants. Liposomes may be made to mimic the pathogens that stimulated the evolution of the immune system. As such, numerous mechanisms exist to promote their uptake by antigen presenting cells and exposure of encapsulated antigens to the lymphocytes of the immune system for the induction of responses. The review is intended to describe the 30 year history of the use of liposomes are carriers of protein antigens, notably from the perspective of what we have learned about the immune system using liposomes.

Development of liposomal polyene antibiotics: an historical perspective.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this review article is to review the development of a number of liposomal polyene antibiotics. BACKGROUND: In the past thirty years, the increase in life-threatening pre-systemic and systemic fungal infections within cancer, diabetic and AIDS patients have reached alarming proportions. A number of antifungal agents have been developed to combat this problem. In particular, polyene antibiotics such as Amphotericin B (AmB) and Nystatin (Nys) have remained the most effective and widely used agents in the treatment of these infections. However, their administration is limited by dose-dependent toxicities. One such dose-limiting toxicity is renal toxicity. Polyene antibiotic-induced renal toxicity is believed to be mediated by the drug anchoring to cholesterol within the mammalian cell membrane, resulting in pore formation, abnormal electrolyte flux, decrease in adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and eventually a loss of cell viability. CONCLUSION: In the 1980s and 90s a number of promising lipid-based AmB and Nys formulations were developed to overcome these toxicities. This article will review the development of these liposomal polyene antibiotics.

Surrogate cells or Trojan horses. The discovery of liposomes.

An autobiographical account of the liposome, from the perplexities of a blood smear to the growth of a multi-million pound business.