Lipoproteins: from physiological roles to drug delivery potentials.

Lipoproteins, the endogenous lipid-protein associations responsible for lipid metabolism within the human body, have attracted interest in recent years for their potential as drug delivery carriers owing to, mainly, their lipophilic/amphiphilic nature, which makes them ideal for interacting with highly lipophilic drugs. After lipoprotein particles have been isolated from the blood, drugs can be "loaded" onto them with a variety of methods. Loading can be done either in soluble/suspended form in a liquid medium or as a dry film. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. The drug-loaded lipoproteins can be modified by the attachment of different ligands that target the particles to specific tissue/cell types within the body. A wide variety of drug molecules both from small molecular or macromolecular structures have been tested successfully, mostly in vitro, for their potential for delivery by lipoprotein carriers.