Liposomes for Antibiotic Encapsulation and Delivery

When antibiotics are administered, orally or intravenously, they pass through different organs and layers of tissue on their way to the site of infection; this can cause dilution and/or intoxication. To overcome these problems, drug delivery vehicles have been used to encapsulate and deliver antibiotics, improving their therapeutic index while minimizing their adverse effects. Liposomes are self-assembled lipid vesicles made from at least one bilayer of phospholipids with an inner aqueous compartment. Liposomes are attractive vehicles to deliver antibiotics because they can encapsulate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic antibiotics, they have low toxicity, and they can change the biodistribution of the drug. Furthermore, liposomes have been approved by regulatory agencies. However, most developmental and mechanistic research in the field has been focused on encapsulation and delivery of anticancer drugs, a class of molecules that differ significantly in chemistry from antibiotics. In this critical Review, we discuss the state of knowledge regarding the design of liposomes for encapsulation and delivery of antibiotics and offer insight into the challenges and promises of using liposomes for antibiotic delivery.