The potential use of liposome-mediated antiviral therapy.

The natural targeting of liposomes to cells of the reticuloendothelial system should be exploited to examine whether selective delivery of antiviral or immunomodulatory agents could be beneficial for the treatment of virus diseases. In this review we discuss the potential use of liposomes in the treatment of virus diseases, the targeting of liposome-encapsulated immunomodulators to macrophages in order to render these cells cytolytic for virus-infected cells, and the targeting of liposome-encapsulated antiviral drugs to macrophages to achieve direct suppression of virus replication with in these cells.