Why use liposomes in analgesics?

Currently available local anesthetics have relatively short half-life, and may cause severe systemic adverse effects. This problem could be circumvented, in large part, by encapsulating drug molecules in liposomes, which allows for controlled release of the therapeutic agents. Encapsulation can also alter the spatial and temporal distribution of the drug molecules in human body resulting in significant attenuation of unwanted side effects, and thereby increasing drug compliance and efficiency of the treatment. The huge advantage of encapsulating analgesics drugs in liposomes has been demonstrated in chronic pain management. Bupivacaine is a local anesthetic commonly used in short-term postsurgical analgesia. A major drawback of bupivacaine and other local anesthetics is the moderate duration of action, averaging 8 to 12 hours. Liposomal encapsulation has substantially improved the functional properties--most importantly, the duration of Bupivacaine. By loading the drug molecules in multivesicular liposomes, the terminal half-life of liposomal bupivacaine has been increased by 9.8 folds compared to that of plain bupivacaine. Inspired by this, Creative Biostructure has developed a reliable system for liposome production and drug encapsulation to enable rapid design and evaluation of various liposomes and their encapsulation efficiency.