Tuftsin-bearing liposomes in treatment of macrophage-based infections.

The use of liposomes as drug carriers in treatment of various diseases has been explored extensively for more than 20 years. 'Conventional' liposomes, when administered in vivo by a variety of routes, rapidly accumulate in the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS). The inherent tendency of the liposomes to concentrate in MPS can be exploited in enhancing the non-specific host defence against infections by entrapping in them the macrophage modulators, and as carriers of antibiotics in treatment of intracellular infections that reside in MPS. This must further be enhanced by grafting on the liposome surface the ligands, e.g. tuftsin, that not only binds specifically to the MPS cells but also enhances their natural killer activity. Keeping this in view, we designed and developed tuftsin-bearing liposomes as drug carriers for the treatment of macrophage-based infections and outline these studies in this overview.