liposome
Meaning of liposome: A liposome is a laboratory made, fat based capsule engineered to carry a drug through the body and release it more precisely.
Definition of liposome
A liposome is a microscopic, spherical particle manufactured in a laboratory from lipids, the same basic class of fat molecules that make up the body's own cell membranes. These lipids naturally arrange into one or more layered shells surrounding a central core, creating a capsule that can enclose a drug or other substance.
Because a liposome's outer layer resembles a natural cell membrane, it can help protect an enclosed drug from breaking down in the bloodstream and can influence where in the body the drug tends to accumulate. This can allow more of the drug to reach its intended target while reducing the amount reaching other tissues.
Liposomes are used to deliver certain chemotherapy drugs, antifungal medications, and other treatments, and their size and lipid composition can be adjusted to change how quickly the enclosed drug is released and how the particle is cleared from the body.
Used in a sentence
The chemotherapy regimen was changed to a liposomal formulation to help reduce the patient's infusion reactions.
Good to know
A drug enclosed in a liposome can behave quite differently in the body than the same drug given in its plain form, including differences in side effects, so liposomal and non-liposomal versions of a drug are not considered interchangeable.
Word origin
Where “liposome” comes from
Formed from Greek lipos, meaning fat, and soma, meaning body, describing a fat based particle.