The lipophilic fatty acids and hydrophilic phosphoric acid based esters together contribute an amphiphilic character. They are bipolar and act as an emulsifying agent.
Phospholipids when hydrated have a unique property of self assembling into vesicles. These vesicles known as LIPOSOMES are promising systems for drug delivery and can be unilamellar (single phospholipid bilayer) or multilamellar (two or more phospholipid bilayers). They can encapsulate both, drugs and phyto-actives or phytonutrients.
They are highly biocompatible, biodegradable with no toxicity & high aptitude to entrap both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs and have site specific drug delivery.
The infusion of lipid emulsions allows a high energy supply, facilitates the prevention of high glucose infusion rates and is indispensable for the supply with essential fatty acids. Egg phospholipids are used to emulsify 10-30% oil-in-water emulsions for parenteral nutrition. The major components of lipid emulsions are essential omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid, DHA, EPA) and omega-6 fatty acids (linoleic acid, arachidonic acid).
Essential phospholipids (EPL) are a combination of unsaturated fatty acid phospholipids from natural sources like soybean or sunflower.
Lipids are used to nano-encapsulate the genetic strands to significantly enhance the immunogenic response of vaccines against antigens and has led to a medical breakthrough in vaccine-based delivery systems, enabling the development of Covid-19 vaccines at a blistering pace. They help to develop adaptive immune responses against a wide variety of pathogens, besides Coronaviruses.
Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) Based Vaccines Uitlize Lipids:
