The Golden Liposomes: Preparation and Biomedical Applications of Gold-Liposome Nanocomposites

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) have received a growing attention due to their fascinating physiochemical properties and promising range of biomedical applications including sensing, diagnosis and cancer photothermal ablation. AuNP enjoy brilliant optical properties and ability to convert light into local heat and function as a “nanoheaters” to fight cancer. However, AuNP are poor drug delivery systems as they do not have reservoirs or matrices to achieve an acceptable drug loading efficiency. On the other end, liposome-based nanocarriers do not exhibit such optical properties but are excellent platform for drug loading and they have been proven clinically with a true presence in the market since the FDA approved Doxil® in 1995. Combining the brilliant optical and photothermal properties of AuNP with the excellent drug loading capability of liposome should yield nanocomposites that enjoy the features of both modalities and enable the development of novel and smart drug delivery systems. Therefore, this review discusses the up-to date research on the AuNP-liposome nanocomposites and the current available approaches and protocols for their preparation and characterization. Finally, the biomedical applications of AuNP-liposome nanocomposites and proposed future directions in this field are discussed.

Keywords

• gold
• nanoparticles
• plasmonic
• liposomes
• lipid
• composites