Liposomes as ‘smart’ pharmaceutical nanocarriers

Since the discovery of liposomes, these phospholipid ‘bubbles’ have received enormous attention to be recognized as ‘smart’ pharmaceutical nanocarriers. Recently, much effort has been directed to the development of so-called ‘smart’ stimuli-sensitive liposomes that will respond to certain internal or external stimuli, such as, pH, temperature, redox potential or magnetic field. These programmable delivery systems can also be made ‘multifunctional’ so as to expose certain functions in an orchestrated manner which can be readily modulated by the stimulus. In this article, the evolution of liposomes with emphasis on the recent advances in stimuli-sensitive liposomes has been reviewed.